Effect of radial flow on two particle correlations with identified triggers at intermediate pT in p–Pb collisions at sNN=5.02 TeV

Results from two-particle correlation between identified triggers (pions (π±π±), protons (p/p¯)) and un-identified charged particles at intermediate transverse momentum (pTpT) in p–Pb collisions at sNN=5.02 TeV have been presented. The events generated from a hybrid Monte-Carlo event generator, EPOS 3.107 that implements a flux-tube initial conditions followed by event by event 3+1D viscous hydrodynamical evolution, have been analyzed to calculate two-dimensional correlation functions in Δη–ΔϕΔη–Δϕ. The strength of angular correlations at small relative angles (jet-like correlations), quantified in terms of near-side jet-like per-trigger yield has been calculated as a function of the event multiplicity. The yield associated with pion triggers exhibit negligible multiplicity dependence, while the proton-triggered yield shows a gradual suppression from low to high multiplicity events. In small collision systems like p–Pb where jet modification is expected to be less dominant, the observed suppression may be associated with the hydrodynamical evolution of the bulk system that generates an outward radial flow. Analogous measurements in Au–Au collisions at RHIC energy have shown a hint of dilution in proton-triggered correlation at its highest multiplicity suggesting that the soft physics processes in p–Pb and heavy ion collisions may have qualitative similarity.