Initial Energy Density of √s = 7 and 8 TeV p–p Collisions at the LHC

Results from the Relativistic Heavy Ion Colloder (RHIC) and the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) experiments show that in relativistic heavy ion collisions, a new state of matter, a strongly interacting perfect fluid, is created. Accelerating, exact and explicit solutions of relativistic hydrodynamics allow for a simple and natural description of this medium. A finite rapidity distribution arises from these solutions, leading to an advanced estimate of the initial energy density of high energy collisions. These solutions can be utilized to describe various aspects of proton–proton collisions, as originally suggested by Landau. We show that an advanced estimate based on hydrodynamics yields an initial energy density in $\sqrt{s}=7$ and 8 TeV proton–proton (p–p) collisions at the LHC on the same order as the critical energy density from lattice Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD). The advanced estimate yields a corresponding initial temperature that is around the critical temperature from QCD and the Hagedorn temperature. The multiplicity dependence of the estimated initial energy density suggests that in high multiplicity p–p collisions at the LHC, there is large enough initial energy density to create a non-hadronic perfect fluid.