Glauber Monte Carlo for proton-proton and virtual-photon-proton collisions

Abstract: In high energy physics, we want to probe the inner structures and behaviours of the particles that are the building blocks of our universe. This is often done by colliding nuclei together. This bachelor thesis presents an implementation of a Glauber Monte Carlo simulation framework to determine the geometric quantities such as the number of participating nucleons $N_{part}$ and the number of sub-collisions $N_{coll}$ as well as the total and elastic integrated cross sections in high-energy collisions. The models include the black and grey disk models for proton-ion collisions and a dipole model for virtual-photon-ion collisions, which are fit to cross section data. The models rely on the optical theorem and Good-Walker formalism to calculate $N_{coll}$ and $N_{part}$ based on the impact parameter $b$. These models for proton-proton and virtual-photon-proton ($\mathrm{\gamma^'p}$) collisions were found to be somewhat consistent with predicting the integrated total cross section as functions of the center of mass energy $\sqrt{s}$ (or virtuality $Q^2$ and center of mass energy $W^2$ in virtual-photon-proton $\mathrm{\gamma^'p}$) whilst struggling with predicting the integrated elastic cross section for proton-proton collisions.