Refine
Language
- English (40)
Has Fulltext
- yes (40)
Is part of the Bibliography
- no (40)
Keywords
- Hadron-Hadron Scattering (3)
- Collective Flow (2)
- Jets (2)
- Collective Flow, (1)
- Hard Scattering (1)
- Heavy Ion Experiments (1)
- Multi-Parton Interactions (1)
- Quark Deconfinement (1)
Institute
- Informatik (40) (remove)
Collective behavior has been observed in high-energy heavy-ion collisions for several decades. Collectivity is driven by the high particle multiplicities that are produced in these collisions. At the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), features of collectivity have also been seen in high-multiplicity proton-proton collisions that can attain particle multiplicities comparable to peripheral Pb-Pb collisions. One of the possible signatures of collective behavior is the decrease of femtoscopic radii extracted from pion and kaon pairs emitted from high-multiplicity collisions with increasing pair transverse momentum. This decrease can be described in terms of an approximate transverse mass scaling. In the present work, femtoscopic analyses are carried out by the ALICE collaboration on charged pion and kaon pairs produced in pp collisions at s√=13 TeV from the LHC to study possible collectivity in pp collisions. The event-shape analysis method based on transverse sphericity is used to select for spherical versus jet-like events, and the effects of this selection on the femtoscopic radii for both charged pion and kaon pairs are studied. This is the first time this selection method has been applied to charged kaon pairs. An approximate transverse-mass scaling of the radii is found in all multiplicity ranges studied when the difference in the Lorentz boost for pions and kaons is taken into account. This observation does not support the hypothesis of collective expansion of hot and dense matter that should only occur in high-multiplicity events. A possible alternate explanation of the present results is based on a scenario of common emission conditions for pions and kaons in pp collisions for the multiplicity ranges studied.
This Letter presents the most precise measurement to date of the matter/antimatter imbalance at midrapidity in Pb-Pb collisions at a center-of-mass energy per nucleon pair sNN−−−√=5.02 TeV. Using the Statistical Hadronization framework, it is possible to obtain the value of the electric charge and baryon chemical potentials, μQ=−0.18±0.90 MeV and μB=0.71±0.45 MeV, with unprecedented precision. A centrality-differential study of the antiparticle-to-particle yield ratios of charged pions, protons, Ω-baryons, and light (hyper)nuclei is performed. These results indicate that the system created in Pb-Pb collisions at the LHC is on average baryon-free and electrically neutral at midrapidity.
K+K− pairs may be produced in photonuclear collisions, either from the decays of photoproduced ϕ(1020) mesons, or directly as non-resonant K+K− pairs. Measurements of K+K− photoproduction probe the couplings between the ϕ(1020) and charged kaons with photons and nuclear targets. We present the first measurement of coherent photoproduction of K+K− pairs on lead ions in ultra-peripheral collisions using the ALICE detector, including the first investigation of direct K+K− production. There is significant K+K− production at low transverse momentum, consistent with coherent photoproduction on lead targets. In the mass range 1.1<MKK<1.4 GeV/c2 above the ϕ(1020) resonance, for rapidity |yKK|<0.8 and pT,KK<0.1 GeV/c, the measured coherent photoproduction cross section is dσ/dy = 3.37 ± 0.61 (stat.) ± 0.15 (syst.) mb. The centre-of-mass energy per nucleon of the photon-nucleus (Pb) system WγPb,n ranges from 33 to 188 GeV, far higher than previous measurements on heavy-nucleus targets. The cross section is larger than expected for ϕ(1020) photoproduction alone. The mass spectrum is fit to a cocktail consisting of ϕ(1020) decays, direct K+K− photoproduction, and interference between the two. The confidence regions for the amplitude and relative phase angle for direct K+K− photoproduction are presented.
Results on the transverse spherocity dependence of light-flavor particle production (π, K, p, ϕ, K∗0, K0S, Λ, Ξ) at midrapidity in high-multiplicity pp collisions at s√=13 TeV were obtained with the ALICE apparatus. The transverse spherocity estimator (SpT=1O) categorizes events by their azimuthal topology. Utilizing narrow selections on SpT=1O, it is possible to contrast particle production in collisions dominated by many soft initial interactions with that observed in collisions dominated by one or more hard scatterings. Results are reported for two multiplicity estimators covering different pseudorapidity regions. The SpT=1O estimator is found to effectively constrain the hardness of the events when the midrapidity (|η|<0.8) estimator is used. The production rates of strange particles are found to be slightly higher for soft isotropic topologies, and severely suppressed in hard jet-like topologies. These effects are more pronounced for hadrons with larger mass and strangeness content, and observed when the topological selection is done within a narrow multiplicity interval. This demonstrates that an important aspect of the universal scaling of strangeness enhancement with final-state multiplicity is that high-multiplicity collisions are dominated by soft, isotropic processes. On the contrary, strangeness production in events with jet-like processes is significantly reduced. The results presented in this article are compared with several QCD-inspired Monte Carlo event generators. Models that incorporate a two-component phenomenology, either through mechanisms accounting for string density, or thermal production, are able to describe the observed strangeness enhancement as a function of SpT=1O.
This Letter presents the measurement of near-side associated per-trigger yields, denoted ridge yields, from the analysis of angular correlations of charged hadrons in proton-proton collisions at s√ = 13 TeV. Long-range ridge yields are extracted for pairs of charged particles with a pseudorapidity difference of 1.4<|Δη|<1.8 and a transverse momentum of 1<pT<2 GeV/c, as a function of the charged-particle multiplicity measured at midrapidity. This study extends the measurements of the ridge yield to the low multiplicity region, where in hadronic collisions it is typically conjectured that a strongly-interacting medium is unlikely to be formed. The precision of the new results allows for the first direct quantitative comparison with the results obtained in e+e− collisions at s√ = 91 GeV, where initial-state effects such as pre-equilibrium dynamics and collision geometry are not expected to play a role. In the multiplicity range where the e+e− results have good precision, the measured ridge yields in pp collisions are substantially larger than the limits set in e+e− annihilations. Consequently, the findings presented in this Letter suggest that the processes involved in e+e− annihilations do not contribute significantly to the emergence of long-range correlations in pp collisions.
The femtoscopic study of pairs of identical pions is particularly suited to investigate the effective source function of particle emission, due to the resulting Bose-Einstein correlation signal. In small collision systems at the LHC, pp in particular, the majority of the pions are produced in resonance decays, which significantly affect the profile and size of the source. In this work, we explicitly model this effect in order to extract the primordial source in pp collisions at s√=13 TeV from charged π-π correlations measured by ALICE. We demonstrate that the assumption of a Gaussian primordial source is compatible with the data and that the effective source, resulting from modifications due to resonances, is approximately exponential, as found in previous measurements at the LHC. The universality of hadron emission in pp collisions is further investigated by applying the same methodology to characterize the primordial source of K-p pairs. The size of the primordial source is evaluated as a function of the transverse mass (mT) of the pairs, leading to the observation of a common scaling for both π-π and K-p, suggesting a collective effect. Further, the present results are compatible with the mT scaling of the p-p and p−Λ primordial source measured by ALICE in high multiplicity pp collisions, providing compelling evidence for the presence of a common emission source for all hadrons in small collision systems at the LHC. This will allow the determination of the source function for any hadron--hadron pairs with high precision, granting access to the properties of the possible final-state interaction among pairs of less abundantly produced hadrons, such as strange or charmed particles.
The dependence of f0(980) production on the final-state charged-particle multiplicity in p−Pb collisions at sNN−−−√=5.02 TeV is reported. The production of f0(980) is measured with the ALICE detector via the f0(980)→π+π− decay channel in a midrapidity region of −0.5<y<0. Particle yield ratios of f0(980) to π and K∗(892)0 are found to be decreasing with increasing charged-particle multiplicity. The magnitude of the suppression of the f0(980)/π and f0(980)/K∗(892)0 yield ratios is found to be dependent on the transverse momentum pT, suggesting different mechanisms responsible for the measured effects. Furthermore, the nuclear modification factor QpPb of f0(980) is measured in various multiplicity ranges. The QpPb shows a strong suppression of the f0(980) production in the pT region up to about 4 GeV/c. The results on the particle yield ratios and QpPb for f0(980) may help to understand the late hadronic phase in p−Pb collisions and the nature of the internal structure of f0(980) particle.
The two-particle momentum correlation functions between charm mesons (D∗± and D±) and charged light-flavor mesons (π± and K±) in all charge-combinations are measured for the first time by the ALICE Collaboration in high-multiplicity proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of s√=13 TeV. For DK and D∗K pairs, the experimental results are in agreement with theoretical predictions of the residual strong interaction based on quantum chromodynamics calculations on the lattice and chiral effective field theory. In the case of Dπ and D∗π pairs, tension between the calculations including strong interactions and the measurement is observed. For all particle pairs, the data can be adequately described by Coulomb interaction only, indicating a shallow interaction between charm and light-flavor mesons. Finally, the scattering lengths governing the residual strong interaction of the Dπ and D∗π systems are determined by fitting the experimental correlation functions with a model that employs a Gaussian potential. The extracted values are small and compatible with zero.
The intense photon fluxes from relativistic nuclei provide an opportunity to study photonuclear interactions in ultraperipheral collisions. The measurement of coherently photoproduced π+π−π+π− final states in ultraperipheral Pb-Pb collisions at sNN−−−√=5.02 TeV is presented for the first time. The cross section, dσ/dy, times the branching ratio (ρ→π+π+π−π−) is found to be 47.8±2.3 (stat.)±7.7 (syst.) mb in the rapidity interval |y|<0.5. The invariant mass distribution is not well described with a single Breit-Wigner resonance. The production of two interfering resonances, ρ(1450) and ρ(1700), provides a good description of the data. The values of the masses (m) and widths (Γ) of the resonances extracted from the fit are m1=1385±14 (stat.)±3 (syst.) MeV/c2, Γ1=431±36 (stat.)±82 (syst.) MeV/c2, m2=1663±13 (stat.)±22 (syst.) MeV/c2 and Γ2=357±31 (stat.)±49 (syst.) MeV/c2, respectively. The measured cross sections times the branching ratios are compared to recent theoretical predictions.
Measurements of the pT-dependent flow vector fluctuations in Pb-Pb collisions at sNN−−−√=5.02 TeV using azimuthal correlations with the ALICE experiment at the LHC are presented. A four-particle correlation approach [1] is used to quantify the effects of flow angle and magnitude fluctuations separately. This paper extends previous studies to additional centrality intervals and provides measurements of the pT-dependent flow vector fluctuations at sNN−−−√=5.02 TeV with two-particle correlations. Significant pT-dependent fluctuations of the V⃗ 2 flow vector in Pb-Pb collisions are found across different centrality ranges, with the largest fluctuations of up to ∼15% being present in the 5% most central collisions. In parallel, no evidence of significant pT-dependent fluctuations of V⃗ 3 or V⃗ 4 is found. Additionally, evidence of flow angle and magnitude fluctuations is observed with more than 5σ significance in central collisions. These observations in Pb-Pb collisions indicate where the classical picture of hydrodynamic modeling with a common symmetry plane breaks down. This has implications for hard probes at high pT, which might be biased by pT-dependent flow angle fluctuations of at least 23% in central collisions. Given the presented results, existing theoretical models should be re-examined to improve our understanding of initial conditions, quark--gluon plasma (QGP) properties, and the dynamic evolution of the created system.
The pT-differential production cross sections of non-prompt D0, D+, and D+s mesons originating from beauty-hadron decays are measured in proton−proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy s√ of 13 TeV. The measurements are performed at midrapidity, |y|<0.5, with the data sample collected by ALICE from 2016 to 2018. The results are in agreement with predictions from several perturbative QCD calculations. The fragmentation fraction of beauty quarks to strange mesons divided by the one to non-strange mesons, fs/(fu+fd), is found to be 0.114±0.016 (stat.)±0.006 (syst.)±0.003 (BR)±0.003 (extrap.). This value is compatible with previous measurements at lower centre-of-mass energies and in different collision systems in agreement with the assumption of universality of fragmentation functions. In addition, the dependence of the non-prompt D meson production on the centre-of-mass energy is investigated by comparing the results obtained at s√=5.02 and 13 TeV, showing a hardening of the non-prompt D-meson pT-differential production cross section at higher s√. Finally, the bb¯¯¯ production cross section per unit of rapidity at midrapidity is calculated from the non-prompt D0, D+, D+s, and Λ+c hadron measurements, obtaining dσ/dy=75.2±3.2 (stat.)±5.2 (syst.)+12.3−3.2 (extrap.) μb.
The two-particle momentum correlation functions between charm mesons (D∗± and D±) and charged light-flavor mesons (π± and K±) in all charge-combinations are measured for the first time by the ALICE Collaboration in high-multiplicity proton–proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of √s = 13 TeV. For DK and D∗K pairs, the experimental results are in agreement with theoretical predictions of the residual strong interaction based on quantum chromodynamics calculations on the lattice and chiral effective field theory. In the case of Dπ and D∗π pairs, tension between the calculations including strong interactions and the measurement is observed. For all particle pairs, the data can be adequately described by Coulomb interaction only, indicating a shallow interaction between charm and light-flavor mesons. Finally, the scattering lengths governing the residual strong interaction of the Dπ and D∗π systems are determined by fitting the experimental correlation functions with a model that employs a Gaussian potential. The extracted values are small and compatible with zero.
This Letter presents the first measurement of event-by-event fluctuations of the net number (difference between the particle and antiparticle multiplicities) of multistrange hadrons Ξ− and Ξ¯¯¯¯+ and its correlation with the net-kaon number using the data collected by the ALICE Collaboration in pp, p−Pb, and Pb−Pb collisions at a center-of-mass energy per nucleon pair sNN−−−√=5.02 TeV. The statistical hadronization model with a correlation over three units of rapidity between hadrons having the same and opposite strangeness content successfully describes the results. On the other hand, string-fragmentation models that mainly correlate strange hadrons with opposite strange quark content over a small rapidity range fail to describe the data.
he first measurement of 3ΛH and 3Λ¯¯¯¯H¯¯¯¯ differential production with respect to transverse momentum and centrality in Pb−Pb collisions at sNN−−−√=5.02~TeV is presented. The 3ΛH has been reconstructed via its two-charged-body decay channel, i.e., 3ΛH→3He+π−. A Blast-Wave model fit of the pT-differential spectra of all nuclear species measured by the ALICE collaboration suggests that the 3ΛH kinetic freeze-out surface is consistent with that of other nuclei. The ratio between the integrated yields of 3ΛH and 3He is compared to predictions from the statistical hadronisation model and the coalescence model, with the latter being favoured by the presented measurements.
First measurements of hadron(h)−Λ azimuthal angular correlations in p−Pb collisions at sNN−−−√ = 5.02 TeV using the ALICE detector at the LHC are presented. These correlations are used to separate the production of associated Λ baryons into three different kinematic regions, namely those produced in the direction of the trigger particle (near-side), those produced in the opposite direction (away-side), and those whose production is uncorrelated with the jet-axis (underlying event). The per-trigger associated Λ yields in these regions are extracted, along with the near- and away-side azimuthal peak widths, and the results are studied as a function of associated particle pT and event multiplicity. Comparisons with the DPMJET event generator and previous measurements of the ϕ(1020) meson are also made. The final results indicate that strangeness production in the highest multiplicity p−Pb collisions is enhanced relative to low multiplicity collisions in the jet-like regions, as well as the underlying event. The production of Λ relative to charged hadrons is also enhanced in the underlying event when compared to the jet-like regions. Additionally, the results hint that strange quark production in the away-side of the jet is modified by soft interactions with the underlying event.
Measurements of (anti)deuteron and (anti)3He production in the rapidity range |y|< 0.5 as a function of the transverse momentum and event multiplicity in Xe−Xe collisions at a center-of-mass energy per nucleon−nucleon pair of sNN−−−√ = 5.44 TeV are presented. The coalescence parameters B2 and B3 are measured as a function of the transverse momentum per nucleon. The ratios between (anti)deuteron and (anti)3He yields and those of (anti)protons and pions are reported as a function of the mean charged-particle multiplicity density, and compared with two implementations of the statistical hadronization model (SHM) and with coalescence predictions. The elliptic flow of (anti)deuterons is measured for the first time in Xe−Xe collisions and shows features similar to those already observed in Pb−Pb collisions, i.e., the mass ordering at low transverse momentum and the meson−baryon grouping at intermediate transverse momentum. The production of nuclei is particularly sensitive to the chemical freeze-out temperature of the system created in the collision, which is extracted from a grand-canonical-ensemble-based thermal fit, performed for the first time including light nuclei along with light-flavor hadrons in Xe−Xe collisions. The extracted chemical freeze-out temperature Tchem = (154.2 ± 1.1) MeV in Xe−Xe collisions is similar to that observed in Pb−Pb collisions and close to the crossover temperature predicted by lattice QCD calculations.
The transverse momentum (pT) differential production cross section of the promptly-produced charm-strange baryon Ξ0c (and its charge conjugate Ξ0c¯¯¯¯¯¯) is measured at midrapidity via its hadronic decay into π+Ξ− in p−Pb collisions at a centre-of-mass energy per nucleon−nucleon collision sNN−−−√ = 5.02 TeV with the ALICE detector at the LHC. The Ξ0c nuclear modification factor (RpPb), calculated from the cross sections in pp and p−Pb collisions, is presented and compared with the RpPb of Λ+c baryons. The ratios between the pT-differential production cross section of Ξ0c baryons and those of D0 mesons and Λ+c baryons are also reported and compared with results at forward and backward rapidity from the LHCb Collaboration. The measurements of the production cross section of prompt Ξ0c baryons are compared with a model based on perturbative QCD calculations of charm-quark production cross sections, which includes only cold nuclear matter effects in p−Pb collisions, and underestimates the measurement by a factor of about 50. This discrepancy is reduced when the data is compared with a model in which hadronisation is implemented via quark coalescence. The pT-integrated cross section of prompt Ξ0c-baryon production at midrapidity extrapolated down to pT = 0 is also reported. These measurements offer insights and constraints for theoretical calculations of the hadronisation process. Additionally, they provide inputs for the calculation of the charm production cross section in p−Pb collisions at midrapidity.
Investigating strangeness enhancement with multiplicity in pp collisions using angular correlations
()
A study of strange hadron production associated with hard scattering processes and with the underlying event is conducted to investigate the origin of the enhanced production of strange hadrons in small collision systems characterised by large charged-particle multiplicities. For this purpose, the production of the single-strange meson K0S and the double-strange baryon Ξ± is measured, in each event, in the azimuthal direction of the highest-pT particle (``trigger" particle), related to hard scattering processes, and in the direction transverse to it in azimuth, associated with the underlying event, in pp collisions at s√=5.02 TeV and s√=13 TeV using the ALICE detector at the LHC. The per-trigger yields of K0S and Ξ± are dominated by the transverse-to-leading production (i.e., in the direction transverse to the trigger particle), whose contribution relative to the toward-leading production is observed to increase with the event charged-particle multiplicity. The transverse-to-leading and the toward-leading Ξ±/K0S yield ratios increase with the multiplicity of charged particles, suggesting that strangeness enhancement with multiplicity is associated with both hard scattering processes and the underlying event. The relative production of Ξ± with respect to K0S is higher in transverse-to-leading processes over the whole multiplicity interval covered by the measurement. The K0S and Ξ± per-trigger yields and yield ratios are compared with predictions of three different phenomenological models, namely PYTHIA 8.2 with the Monash tune, PYTHIA 8.2 with ropes and EPOS LHC. The comparison shows that none of them can quantitatively describe either the transverse-to-leading or the toward-leading yields of K0S and Ξ±.
The first measurement of the impact-parameter dependent angular anisotropy in the decay of coherently photoproduced ρ0 mesons is presented. The ρ0 mesons are reconstructed through their decay into a pion pair. The measured anisotropy corresponds to the amplitude of the cos(2ϕ) modulation, where ϕ is the angle between the two vectors formed by the sum and the difference of the transverse momenta of the pions, respectively. The measurement was performed by the ALICE Collaboration at the LHC using data from ultraperipheral Pb−Pb collisions at a center-of-mass energy of sNN−−−√ = 5.02 TeV per nucleon pair. Different impact-parameter regions are selected by classifying the events in nuclear-breakup classes. The amplitude of the cos(2ϕ) modulation is found to increase by about one order of magnitude from large to small impact parameters. Theoretical calculations, which describe the measurement, explain the cos(2ϕ) anisotropy as the result of a quantum interference effect at the femtometer scale that arises from the ambiguity as to which of the nuclei is the source of the photon in the interaction.