Tsallis Fits to p_t Spectra for pp Collisions at LHC

Phenomenological Tsallis fits to the CMS and ATLAS transverse spectra of charged particles were found to extend for pT from 0.5 to 181 GeV in pp collisions at the LHC at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV, and for pT from 0.5 to 31 GeV at sqrt(s) = 0.9 TeV. The simplicity of the Tsallis parametrization and the large range of the fitting transverse momentum raise questions on the physical meaning of the degrees of freedom that enter into the Tsallis distribution or q-statistics