A three-component description of multiplicity distributions in<i>pp</i>collisions at the LHC

A possible signal of new phenomena emerging in the global characteristics of multiparticle production in hadron interactions at TeV energies is studied. The multiplicity distributions of charged particles measured in proton-proton collisions at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN are analyzed in the phenomenological framework of the weighted superposition of three negative binomial distribution functions. Examination of the experimental data indicates the existence of a narrow peak at low multiplicities which can be described by a separate component in the total distribution. The multiplicity characteristics of the third component reveal approximate energy and pseudorapidity invariance, of which a physical explanation represents a challenging problem in high energy multiple particle production.