Distributions of the Nuclear Modification Factor of Pions, Kaons and Protons in the Most Central Pb–Pb Collisions at √(s_nn) = 2.76 TeV

In this research article, we studied the behavior of the yields and Nuclear Modification Factors (NMFs) of the π±, K± mesons, and for the protons/antiprotons in the mid rapidity region as a function of pT (in the pT < 20 GeV/c region). Additionally, we analyzed the ratios of yields of K± mesons and protons/antiprotons to the yields of π± mesons as a function of pT in the most central Pb-Pb collisions at center of mass energy, √(s_NN) = 2.76 TeV. Our results were obtained using the EPOS-1.99, DPMJETIII-2017.1, and EPOS-LHC models, which were compared with the experimental data from the ALICE experiment. We found that the models gave similar results and effectively described the experimental data, which we attributed to the fact that the models used similar dynamics (string fragmentation) to describe the data in the considered pT region. We observed several regions for the distribution of NMFs, with the boundary values being approximately the same as those reported in a previous study, which we explained as a signal of string fragmentation and decay. We also confirmed the existence of these regions using the ratios of the yields for the particles, which showed that physics in the second and third pT regions differed from that in the first region. Lastly, our results suggested that the parton structure of matter dominated in the second and third pT regions.