Correlations between leading protons and large-transverse-momentum particles and between leading protons and massive lepton pairs in the quark-parton model

Abstract

Correlations between leading protons produced in proton collisions and large-$p_{\perp }$ particles and between leading protons and massive lepton pairs are studied using the quark-parton model. The leading-proton production is described according to a valence-quark-recombination mechanism, large-$p_{\perp }$ jets are produced by the hard scattering of quark-partons, and lepton pairs are produced according to the Drell-Yan mechanism. The predictions of the quark-recombination mechanism agree well with leading proton, neutron, and $\Lambda$ hyperon distributions in low-$p_{\perp }$ events. The predicted correlations between leading protons and large-$p_{\perp }$ particles agree well with recent experimental data. Strong correlations are also predicted between leading protons and massive lepton pairs. The further experimental and theoretical study of such correlations is expected to contribute to the confirmation or exclusion of proposed production mechanisms.