Emergence of KNO scaling in multiplicity distributions in jets produced at the LHC

In this work we study the multiplicity distributions (MDs) of charged particles within jets in proton-proton collisions, which were measured by the ATLAS collaboration in 2011, 2016 and 2019. The first data set refers to jets with lower transverse momenta ($4 < p_T < 40$ GeV ) whereas the other two refer to higher $p_T$ jets ($0.1 < p_T < 2.5$ TeV). We find that the first set shows no sign of KNO scaling whereas the higher $p_T$ sets gradually approach the scaling limit. In the first set the mean multiplicity as a function of $p_T$ can be well described by expressions derived from QCD with different approximation schemes. For higher ($> 500$ GeV) values of $p_T$ these expressions significantly overshoot the data. We show that the behavior of the MDs can be well represented by a Sub-Poisson distribution with energy dependent parameters. In the range $40 < p_T < 100$ GeV there is a transition from sub to super poissonian behavior and the MD evolves to a geometric distribution, which shows KNO scaling. In this way we fit the MDs in all transverse momentum intervals with one single expression. We discuss the implications of this phenomenological finding.
Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, discussion section expanded, version to appear in Phys. Rev. D