Wounded quarks and multiplicity at relativistic ion colliders

In this paper, we propose a parameterization which is based on a phenomenological model in- volving the wounded quarks interactions for explaining the average charged particle multiplicitynch� , the central pseudo-rapidity density � (dn/dη)η=0� and the complete rapidity dependence of dn/dη in rel- ativistic heavy-ion collider experiments. The model also interrelates nucleus-nucleus (A-A) collisions with p-A and p-p interactions. Our parameterization rests on simple assumptions regarding the mean number of participating quarks and their average number of collisions. The results fornchand their variations with the mass number of colliding nuclei, center-of-mass energy ( √ s NN ) and collision centrality are well supported by the available experimental data. Finally we give the predictions from our model for A-A collisions at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) and Compressed Baryonic Matter (CBM) experiments. Our results indicate the existence of a possible universal production mechanism for p-p, p-A and A-A collisions.