Correlations between multiplicities and average transverse momentum in the percolating color strings approach

Long range multiplicity-multiplicity, pT2-multiplicity and p2T- p2T correlations are studied in the percolating color string picture under different assumptions of the dynamics of the string interaction. It is found that the strength of these correlations is rather insensitive to these assumptions; nor is it sensitive to the geometry of the fused string clusters that formed, the percolation phase transition in particular. Both multiplicity-multiplicity and pT2-multiplicity correlations are found to scale and depend only on the string density. pT2-multiplicity correlations, which are absent in the independent string picture, are found to be of the order of 10% for central heavy ion collisions and can serve as a clear signature of string fusion. In contrast p2T- p2T correlations turned out to be inversely proportional to the number of strings and therefore to be very small for realistic collisions. (orig.)