Effect of α clusters on particle production in O-O and p -O collisions at energies available at the CERN Large Hadron Collider

In the present work, O-O collisions at <a:math xmlns:a="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><a:mrow><a:msqrt><a:msub><a:mi>s</a:mi><a:mrow><a:mi>N</a:mi><a:mi>N</a:mi></a:mrow></a:msub></a:msqrt><a:mo>=</a:mo><a:mn>7</a:mn><a:mspace width="0.16em"/><a:mi>TeV</a:mi></a:mrow></a:math> and <c:math xmlns:c="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><c:mi>p</c:mi></c:math>-O collisions at <d:math xmlns:d="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><d:mrow><d:msqrt><d:msub><d:mi>s</d:mi><d:mrow><d:mi>N</d:mi><d:mi>N</d:mi></d:mrow></d:msub></d:msqrt><d:mo>=</d:mo><d:mn>9.9</d:mn><d:mspace width="0.16em"/><d:mi>TeV</d:mi></d:mrow></d:math> are studied using the <f:math xmlns:f="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><f:mi mathvariant="normal" mathsize="small">PYTHIA8</f:mi></f:math>/Angantyr model for heavy-ion collisions. The theoretically predicted <i:math xmlns:i="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><i:mi>α</i:mi></i:math>-cluster structure of oxygen nucleus is implemented in the model to investigate the effect of the initial configuration of the oxygen nucleus on final state observables. The results obtained from the <j:math xmlns:j="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><j:mi>α</j:mi></j:math>-cluster structure are compared with those obtained from Woods-Saxon nuclear charge density distribution. The Angantyr model simulation showed that the radial distribution of the oxygen nucleus in <k:math xmlns:k="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><k:mi>α</k:mi></k:math>-cluster configuration is more compact in comparison to the Woods-Saxon distribution. The results on charged and identified particle pseudorapidity distribution are obtained in the two initial state configurations of the oxygen nucleus. The results demonstrated that the effect of initial geometrical configuration is more distinct in the noncentral collisions in comparison to the central collisions for both O-O and <l:math xmlns:l="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><l:mi>p</l:mi></l:math>-O collisions.