  The multihadron production in nucleus-nucleus collisions and its
interrelation with that in (anti)proton-proton interactions are studied by
exploring the charged particle mean multiplicity collision-energy and
centrality dependencies in the measurements to date. The study is performed in
the framework of the recently proposed effective-energy approach which, under
the proper scaling of the collision energy, combines the constituent quark
picture with Landau relativistic hydrodynamics counting for the
centrality-defined effective energy of participants and relating different
types of collisions. Within this approach, the multiplicity energy dependence
and the pseudorapidity spectra from the most central nuclear collisions are
well reproduced. The study of the multiplicity centrality dependence reveals a
new scaling between the measured pseudorapidity spectra and the calculations.
By means of this scaling, called the energy balanced limiting fragmentation
scaling, one reproduces the pseudorapidity spectra for all centralities. The
scaling elucidates some differences in the multiplicity and midrapidity density
centrality dependence obtained at RHIC and LHC. These findings reveal an
inherent similarity in the multiplicity energy dependence from the most central
collisions and centrality data. A new regime in heavy-ion collisions to occur
at about a TeV energy is indicated, similar to that observed in the earlier
studies of the midrapidity densities. Predictions are made for the mean
multiplicities to be measured in proton-proton and heavy-ion collisions at the
LHC.
