We demonstrate that the nuclear collision geometry (i.e. impact parameter) can be determined with 1.5 fm accuracy in an event-by-event analysis by measuring the transverse energy flow in the pseudorapidity region 3≤∣η∣≤5 with a minimal dependence on collision dynamics details at the LHC energy scale. Using the HIJING model we have illustrated our calculation by a simulation of events of nucleus-nucleus interactions at the c.m.s energy from 1 up to 5.5 TeV per nucleon and various type of nuclei.
@article{arxiv.hep-ph/0008332,
title = {Estimation of Collision Impact Parameter},
author = {M. Savina and S. Shmatov and P. Zarubin},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:hep-ph/0008332},
year = {2008}
}