  In preparation for the heavy ion program at the relativistic heavy ion
collider (RHIC) $d$-Au collisions were designated as a control experiment for
possible discovery of a quark-gluon plasma (QGP) in more-central Au-Au
collisions, and contrasting results from the two systems seemed to support such
a discovery. In contrast, recent results ($p_t$-spectrum and
angular-correlation features) from $p$-Pb collisions at the large hadron
collider (LHC) have been interpreted to support claims of hydrodynamic flows
and QGP formation even in small collision systems. The present study addresses
such claims via a two-component (soft + hard) model (TCM) of identified-hadron
(PID) $p_t$ spectra from 5 TeV $p$-Pb collisions. $p$-Pb centrality is adopted
from a previous study of ensemble-mean $\bar p_t$ data from the same system.
$p$-Pb $p_t$ spectra for pions, kaons, protons and Lambdas are described by the
TCM within their point-to-point uncertainties. Invariance of the TCM hard
component vs $p$-Pb centrality indicates that jet formation remains unchanged
in $p$-Pb collisions relative to $p$-$p$ collisions, and radial-flow
contributions to spectra are negligible. These $p$-Pb TCM results have
implications for interpretation of similar data features from A-A collisions in
terms of QGP formation.
