0000000000292008
AUTHOR
E. Sicking
Freeze-out radii extracted from three-pion cumulants in pp, p–Pb and Pb–Pb collisions at the LHC
In high-energy collisions, the spatio-temporal size of the particle production region can be measured using the Bose-Einstein correlations of identical bosons at low relative momentum. The source radii are typically extracted using two-pion correlations, and characterize the system at the last stage of interaction, called kinetic freeze-out. In low-multiplicity collisions, unlike in high-multiplicity collisions, two-pion correlations are substantially altered by background correlations, e.g. mini-jets. Such correlations can be suppressed using three-pion cumulant correlations. We present the first measurements of the size of the system at freeze-out extracted from three-pion cumulant correl…
J/ψElliptic Flow in Pb-Pb Collisions atsNN=2.76 TeV
We report on the first measurement of inclusive J/psi elliptic flow v(2) in heavy-ion collisions at the LHC. The measurement is performed with the ALICE detector in Pb-Pb collisions at root s(NN) = 2.76 TeV in the rapidity range 2.5 < y < 4.0. The dependence of the J/psi v(2) on the collision centrality and on the J/psi transverse momentum is studied in the range 0 <= p(T) < 10 GeV/c. For semicentral Pb-Pb collisions at root s(NN) = 2.76 TeV, an indication of nonzero v(2) is observed with a largest measured value of v(2) = 0.116 +/-0.046(stat) +/- 0.029(syst) for J/psi in the transverse momentum range 2 <= p(T) < 4 GeV/c. The elliptic flow measurement complements the previously reported ALI…
Pseudorapidity Density of Charged Particles inp+PbCollisions atsNN=5.02 TeV
The charged-particle pseudorapidity density measured over four units of pseudorapidity in nonsingle-diffractive p + Pb collisions at a center-of-mass energy per nucleon pair root s(NN) = 5.02 TeV is presented. The average value at midrapidity is measured to be 16.81 +/- 0.71 (syst), which corresponds to 2.14 +/- 0.17 (syst) per participating nucleon, calculated with the Glauber model. This is 16% lower than in nonsingle-diffractive pp collisions interpolated to the same collision energy and 84% higher than in d + Au collisions at root s(NN) = 0.2 TeV. The measured pseudorapidity density in p + Pb collisions is compared to model predictions and provides new constraints on the description of …
The ALICE Transition Radiation Detector: Construction, operation, and performance
The Transition Radiation Detector (TRD) was designed and built to enhance the capabilities of the ALICE detector at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). While aimed at providing electron identification and triggering, the TRD also contributes significantly to the track reconstruction and calibration in the central barrel of ALICE. In this paper the design, construction, operation, and performance of this detector are discussed. A pion rejection factor of up to 410 is achieved at a momentum of 1 GeV/$c$ in p-Pb collisions and the resolution at high transverse momentum improves by about 40% when including the TRD information in track reconstruction. The triggering capability is demonstrated both …
Harmonic decomposition of two particle angular correlations in Pb–Pb collisions at sNN=2.76 TeV
Angular correlations between unidentified charged trigger (t) and associated (a) particles are measured by the ALICE experiment in Pb-Pb collisions at root s(NN) = 2.76 TeV for transverse momenta 0.25 p(T)(a). The shapes of the pair correlation distributions are studied in a variety of collision centrality classes between 0 and 50% of the total hadronic cross section for particles in the pseudorapidity interval |eta| 0.8, and are referred to as "long-range correlations". Fourier components V-n Delta equivalent to are extracted from the long-range azimuthal correlation functions. If particle pairs are correlated to one another through their individual correlation to a common symmetry plane, …
Charged kaon femtoscopic correlations inppcollisions ats=7 TeV
Correlations of two charged identical kaons (KchKch) are measured in pp collisions at root s = 7 TeV by the ALICE experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). One-dimensional (KKch)-K-ch correlation functions are constructed in three multiplicity and four transverse momentum ranges. The (KKch)-K-ch femtoscopic source parameters R and lambda are extracted. The (KKch)-K-ch correlations show a slight increase of femtoscopic radii with increasing multiplicity and a slight decrease of radii with increasing transverse momentum. These trends are similar to the ones observed for pi pi and K-s(0) K-s(0) correlations in pp and heavy-ion collisions. However at high multiplicities, there is an indica…
Suppression of charged particle production at large transverse momentum in central Pb–Pb collisions at sNN=2.76 TeV
Inclusive transverse momentum spectra of primary charged particles in Pb-Pb collisions at root s(NN) = 2.76 TeV have been measured by the ALICE Collaboration at the LHC. The data are presented for central and peripheral collisions, corresponding to 0-5% and 70-80% of the hadronic Pb-Pb cross section. The measured charged particle spectra in |eta| < 0.8 and 0.3 < p(T) < 20 GeV/c are compared to the expectation in pp collisions at the same root s(NN), scaled by the number of underlying nucleon-nucleon collisions. The comparison is expressed in terms of the nuclear modification factor R-AA. The result indicates only weak medium effects (R-AA approximate to 0.7) in peripheral collisions. In cen…
Two-pion Bose–Einstein correlations in central Pb–Pb collisions at sNN=2.76 TeV
The first measurement of two-pion Bose-Einstein correlations in central Pb-Pb collisions at root(NN)-N-S = 2.76 TeV at the Large Hadron Collider is presented. We observe a growing trend with energy now not only for the longitudinal and the outward but also for the sideward pion source radius. The pion homogeneity volume and the decoupling time are significantly larger than those measured at RHIC. (C) 2010 CERN. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Transverse Momentum Distribution and Nuclear Modification Factor of Charged Particles inp+PbCollisions atsNN=5.02 TeV
The transverse momentum (pT) distribution of primary charged particles is measured in minimum bias (non-single-diffractive) p + Pb collisions at root(NN)-N-s = 5.02 TeV with the ALICE detector at the LHC. The pT spectra measured near central rapidity in the range 0.5< p(T) < 20 GeV/c exhibit a weak pseudorapidity dependence. The nuclear modification factor R-pPb is consistent with unity for p(T) above 2 GeV/c. This measurement indicates that the strong suppression of hadron production at high p(T) observed in Pb + Pb collisions at the LHC is not due to an initial-state effect. The measurement is compared to theoretical calculations. DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.110.082302
Performance of the ALICE VZERO system
ALICE is an LHC experiment devoted to the study of strongly interacting matter in proton-proton, proton--nucleus and nucleus-nucleus collisions at ultra-relativistic energies. The ALICE VZERO system, made of two scintillator arrays at asymmetric positions, one on each side of the interaction point, plays a central role in ALICE. In addition to its core function as a trigger, the VZERO system is used to monitor LHC beam conditions, to reject beam-induced backgrounds and to measure basic physics quantities such as luminosity, particle multiplicity, centrality and event plane direction in nucleus-nucleus collisions. After describing the VZERO system, this publication presents its performance o…
The ALICE Collaboration
The production of mesons containing strange quarks (KS, φ) and both singly and doubly strange baryons ( , , and − + +) are measured at mid-rapidity in pp collisions at √ s = 0.9 TeV with the ALICE experiment at the LHC. The results are obtained from the analysis of about 250 k minimum bias events recorded in 2009. Measurements of yields (dN/dy) and transverse momentum spectra at mid-rapidity for inelastic pp collisions are presented. For mesons, we report yields (〈dN/dy〉) of 0.184 ± 0.002(stat.) ± 0.006(syst.) for KS and 0.021 ± 0.004(stat.) ± 0.003(syst.) for φ. For baryons, we find 〈dN/dy〉 = 0.048 ± 0.001(stat.) ± 0.004(syst.) for , 0.047 ± 0.002(stat.) ± 0.005(syst.) for and 0.0101 ± 0.0…
Centrality determination of Pb-Pb collisions atsNN=2.76TeV with ALICE
This publication describes the methods used to measure the centrality of inelastic Pb-Pb collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 2.76 TeV per colliding nucleon pair with ALICE. The centrality is a key parameter in the study of the properties of QCD matter at extreme temperature and energy density, because it is directly related to the initial overlap region of the colliding nuclei. Geometrical properties of the collision, such as the number of participating nucleons and the number of binary nucleon-nucleon collisions, are deduced from a Glauber model with a sharp impact parameter selection and shown to be consistent with those extracted from the data. The centrality determination provides …
Centrality dependence ofπ,K, andpproduction in Pb-Pb collisions atsNN=2.76TeV
In this paper measurements are presented of pi(+/-), K-+/-, p, and (p) over bar production at midrapidity (vertical bar y vertical bar < 0.5), in Pb-Pb collisions at root s(NN) = 2.76 TeV as a function of centrality. The measurement covers the transverse-momentum (p(T)) range from 100, 200, and 300 MeV/c up to 3, 3, and 4.6 GeV/c for pi, K, and p, respectively. The measured p(T) distributions and yields are compared to expectations based on hydrodynamic, thermal and recombination models. The spectral shapes of central collisions show a stronger radial flow than measured at lower energies, which can be described in hydrodynamic models. In peripheral collisions, the p(T) distributions are not…