Signals of transparency in p-p collisions at RHIC and LHC

The ultra-relativistic p-p collisions at LHC energies have resulted in a number of observations signaling a close resemblance to a system with hydrodynamic flow effects formed in relativistic heavy-ion collisions. The p-p collisions also serve as a baseline for extracting the signals of QGP formation in heavy-ion collisions and are important to understand the particle production mechanism. The value of chemical potential, specified in the framework of thermal models, is found to be lower in the p-p collisions than in heavy-ion collisions due to the low stopping power in p-p collisions whereas it is larger in the case of heavy-ion collisions due to greater rapidity loss (drag) of the two colliding nuclear media. As one goes to LHC energies, the stopping further reduces giving rise to nearly zero net baryon density (or correspondingly zero baryon chemical potential) at mid-rapidity. Thus we believe that at LHC, the p-p collisions are almost completely transparent