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A wide variety of enzymatic pathways that produce specialized metabolites in bacteria, fungi and plants are known to be encoded in biosynthetic gene clusters. Information about these clusters, pathways and metabolites is currently dispersed throughout the literature, making it difficult to exploit. To facilitate consistent and systematic deposition and retrieval of data on biosynthetic gene clusters, we propose the Minimum Information about a Biosynthetic Gene cluster (MIBiG) data standard.
Biodiversity continues to decline in the face of increasing anthropogenic pressures such as habitat destruction, exploitation, pollution and introduction of alien species. Existing global databases of species’ threat status or population time series are dominated by charismatic species. The collation of datasets with broad taxonomic and biogeographic extents, and that support computation of a range of biodiversity indicators, is necessary to enable better understanding of historical declines and to project – and avert – future declines. We describe and assess a new database of more than 1.6 million samples from 78 countries representing over 28,000 species, collated from existing spatial comparisons of local-scale biodiversity exposed to different intensities and types of anthropogenic pressures, from terrestrial sites around the world. The database contains measurements taken in 208 (of 814) ecoregions, 13 (of 14) biomes, 25 (of 35) biodiversity hotspots and 16 (of 17) megadiverse countries. The database contains more than 1% of the total number of all species described, and more than 1% of the described species within many taxonomic groups – including flowering plants, gymnosperms, birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, beetles, lepidopterans and hymenopterans. The dataset, which is still being added to, is therefore already considerably larger and more representative than those used by previous quantitative models of biodiversity trends and responses. The database is being assembled as part of the PREDICTS project (Projecting Responses of Ecological Diversity In Changing Terrestrial Systems – www.predicts.org.uk). We make site-level summary data available alongside this article. The full database will be publicly available in 2015.
The last decade has seen a sharp increase in the number of scientific publications describing physiological and pathological functions of extracellular vesicles (EVs), a collective term covering various subtypes of cell-released, membranous structures, called exosomes, microvesicles, microparticles, ectosomes, oncosomes, apoptotic bodies, and many other names. However, specific issues arise when working with these entities, whose size and amount often make them difficult to obtain as relatively pure preparations, and to characterize properly. The International Society for Extracellular Vesicles (ISEV) proposed Minimal Information for Studies of Extracellular Vesicles (“MISEV”) guidelines for the field in 2014. We now update these “MISEV2014” guidelines based on evolution of the collective knowledge in the last four years. An important point to consider is that ascribing a specific function to EVs in general, or to subtypes of EVs, requires reporting of specific information beyond mere description of function in a crude, potentially contaminated, and heterogeneous preparation. For example, claims that exosomes are endowed with exquisite and specific activities remain difficult to support experimentally, given our still limited knowledge of their specific molecular machineries of biogenesis and release, as compared with other biophysically similar EVs. The MISEV2018 guidelines include tables and outlines of suggested protocols and steps to follow to document specific EV-associated functional activities. Finally, a checklist is provided with summaries of key points.
The polarization of the Λ and ¯Λ hyperons along the beam (z) direction, Pz, has been measured in Pb-Pb collisions at √sNN=5.02 TeV recorded with ALICE at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). The main contribution to Pz comes from elliptic flow-induced vorticity and can be characterized by the second Fourier sine coefficient Pz,s2=⟨Pzsin(2φ−2Ψ2)⟩, where φ is thhyperon azimuthal emission angle and Ψ2 is the elliptic flow plane angle. We report the measurement of Pz,s2 for different collision centralities and in the 30%–50% centrality interval as a function of the hyperon transverse momentum and rapidity. The Pz,s2 is positive similarly as measured by the STAR Collaboration in Au-Au collisions at √sNN=200 GeV, with somewhat smaller amplitude in the semicentral collisions. This is the first experimental evidence of a nonzero hyperon Pz in Pb-Pb collisions at the LHC. The comparison of the measured Pz,s2 with the hydrodynamic model calculations shows sensitivity to the competing contributions from thermal and the recently found shear-induced vorticity, as well as to whether the polarization is acquired at the quark-gluon plasma or the hadronic phase.
Themultiplicity dependence of the pseudorapidity density of charged particles in proton–proton (pp) collisions at centre-of-mass energies √s = 5.02, 7 and 13 TeV measured by ALICE is reported. The analysis relies on track segments measured in the midrapidity range (|η| < 1.5). Results are presented for inelastic events having at least one charged particle produced in the pseudorapidity interval |η| < 1. The multiplicity dependence of the pseudorapidity density of charged particles is measured with mid- and forward rapidity multiplicity estimators, the latter being less affected by autocorrelations.Adetailed comparison with predictions from the PYTHIA 8 and EPOS LHC event generators is also presented. The results can be used to constrain models for particle production as a function of multiplicity in pp collisions.
The first measurement of the production of pions, kaons, (anti-)protons and φ mesons at midrapidity in Xe–Xe collisions at √sNN = 5.44 TeV is presented. Transverse momentum (pT) spectra and pT-integrated yields are extracted in several centrality intervals bridging from p–Pb to mid-central Pb–Pb collisions in terms of final-state multiplicity. The study of Xe–Xe and Pb–Pb collisions allows systems at similar charged-particle multiplicities but with different initial geometrical eccentricities to be investigated. A detailed comparison of the spectral shapes in the two systems reveals an opposite behaviour for radial and elliptic flow. In particular, this study shows that the radial flow does not depend on the colliding system when compared at similar charged-particle multiplicity. In terms of hadron chemistry, the previously observed smooth evolution of particle ratios with multiplicity from small to large collision systems is also found to hold in Xe–Xe. In addition, our results confirm that two remarkable features of particle production at LHC energies are also valid in the collision of medium-sized nuclei: the lower proton-to-pion ratio with respect to the thermal model expectations and the increase of the φ-to-pion ratio with increasing final-state multiplicity.
Correlations between mean transverse momentum [pT] and anisotropic flow coefficients v2 or v3 are measured as a function of centrality in Pb–Pb and Xe–Xe collisions at √sNN = 5.02 TeV and 5.44 TeV, respectively, with ALICE. In addition, the recently proposed higher-order correlation between [pT], v2, and v3 is measured for the first time, which shows an anticorrelation for the presented centrality ranges. These measurements are compared with hydrodynamic calculations using IP-Glasma and TRENTo initialstate shapes, the former based on the Color Glass Condensate effective theory with gluon saturation, and the latter a parameterized model with nucleons as the relevant degrees of freedom. The data are better described by the IP-Glasma rather than the TRENTo based calculations. In particular, Trajectum and JETSCAPE predictions, both based on the TRENTo initial state model but with different parameter settings, fail to describe the measurements. As the correlations between [pT] and vn are mainly driven by the correlations of the size and the shape of the system in the initial state, these new studies pave a novel way to characterize the initial state and help pin down the uncertainty of the extracted properties of the quark–gluon plasma recreated in relativistic heavy-ion collisions.
First measurements of balance functions (BFs) of all combinations of identified charged hadron (π,K, p) pairs in Pb–Pb collisions at √sNN = 2.76 TeV recorded by the ALICE detector are presented. The BF measurements are carried out as two-dimensional differential correlators versus the relative rapidity (Δy) and azimuthal angle (Δφ) of hadron pairs, and studied as a function of collision centrality. The Δφ dependence of BFs is expected to be sensitive to the light quark diffusivity in the quark–gluon plasma. While the BF azimuthal widths of all pairs substantially decrease from peripheral to central collisions, the longitudinal widths exhibit mixed behaviors: BFs of ππ and cross-species pairs narrow significantly in more central collisions, whereas those of KK and pp are found to be independent of collision centrality. This dichotomy is qualitatively consistent with the presence of strong radial flow effects and the existence of two stages of quark production in relativistic heavy-ion collisions. Finally, the first measurements of the collision centrality evolution of BF integrals are presented, with the observation that charge balancing fractions are nearly independent of collision centrality in Pb–Pb collisions. Overall, the results presented provide new and challenging constraints for theoretical models of hadron production and transport in relativistic heavy-ion collisions.
The interaction of Λ and Σ hyperons (Y) with nucleons (N) is strongly influenced by the coupled-channel dynamics. Due to the small mass difference of the NΛ and NΣ systems, the sizable coupling strength of the NΣ ↔ NΛ processes constitutes a crucial element in the determination of the NΛ interaction. In this letter we present the most precise measurements on the interaction of p pairs, from zero relative momentum up to the opening of the NΣ channel. The correlation function in the relative momentum space for p ⊕ p pairs measured in high-multiplicity triggered pp collisions at √s = 13 TeV at the LHC is reported. The opening of the inelastic NΣ channels is visible in the extracted correlation function as a cusp-like structure occurring at relative momentum k∗ = 289 MeV/c. This represents the first direct experimental observation of the NΣ ↔ NΛ coupled channel in the p system. The correlation function is compared with recent chiral effective field theory calculations, based on different strengths of the NΣ ↔ NΛ transition potential. A weaker coupling, as possibly supported by the present measurement, would require a more repulsive three-body NNΛ interaction for a proper description of the in-medium properties, which has implications on the nuclear equation of state and for the presence of hyperons inside neutron stars.
Femtoscopic correlations with the particle pair combinations K0 SK0 S and K0 SK± are studied in pp collisions at √s = 5.02 and 13 TeV by the ALICE experiment. At both energies, boson source parameters are extracted for both pair combinations, by fitting models based on Gaussian size distributions of the sources, to the measured two-particle correlation functions. The interaction model used for the K0 SK0 S analysis includes quantum statistics and strong final-state interactions through the f0(980) and a0(980) resonances. The model used for the K0 SK± analysis includes only the final-state interaction through the a0 resonance. Source parameters extracted in the present work are compared with published values from pp collisions at √s = 7 TeV and the different pair combinations are found to be consistent. From the observation that the strength of the K0 SK0 S correlations is significantly greater than the strength of the K0 SK± correlations, the new results are compatible with the a0 resonance being a tetraquark state of the form (q1, q2, s, s), where q1 and q2 are u or d quarks.
We present the first measurement of event-by-event fluctuations in the kaon sector in Pb – Pb collisions at √sNN = 2.76 TeV with the ALICE detector at the LHC. The robust fluctuation correlator νdyn is used to evaluate the magnitude of fluctuations of the relative yields of neutral and charged kaons, as well as the relative yields of charged kaons, as a function of collision centrality and selected kinematic ranges. While the correlator νdyn[K+,K−] exhibits a scaling approximately in inverse proportion of the charged particle multiplicity, νdyn[K0 S ,K±] features a significant deviation from such scaling. Within uncertainties, the value of νdyn[K0 S ,K±] is independent of the selected transverse momentum interval, while it exhibits a pseudorapidity dependence. The results are compared with HIJING, AMPT and EPOS–LHC predictions, and are further discussed in the context of the possible production of disoriented chiral condensates in central Pb – Pb collisions.
Annihilation dynamics plays a fundamental role in the baryon–antibaryon interaction (B–B) at lowenergy and its strength and range are crucial in the assessment of possible baryonic bound states. Experimental data on annihilation cross sections are available for the p–p system but not in the low relative momentum region. Data regarding the B–B interaction with strange degrees of freedom are extremely scarce, hence the modeling of the annihilation contributions is mainly based on nucleon–antinucleon (N–N) results, when available. In this letter we present a measurement of the p–p, p–⊕p– and – interaction using correlation functions in the relative momentum space in high-multiplicity triggered pp collisions at √s = 13 TeV recorded by ALICE at the LHC. In the p–p system the couplings to the mesonic channels in different partial waves are extracted by adopting a coupled-channel approach with recent χEFT potentials. The inclusion of these inelastic channels provides good agreement with the data, showing a significant presence of the annihilation term down to zero momentum. Predictions obtained using the Lednický–Lyuboshits formula and scattering parameters obtained from heavy-ion collisions, hence mainly sensitive to elastic processes, are compared with the experimental p–⊕p– and – correlations. The model describes the – data and underestimates the p–⊕p– data in the region of momenta below 200 MeV/c. The observed deviation indicates a different contribution of annihilation channels to the two systems containing strange hadrons.
The first results on K∗(892)± resonance production in inelastic pp collisions at LHC energies of √s = 5.02, 8, and 13 TeV are presented. The K∗(892)± has been reconstructed via its hadronic decay channel K∗(892)± → K0 S + π± with the ALICE detector. Measurements of transverse momentum distributions, pT-integrated yields, and mean transverse momenta for charged K∗(892) are found to be consistent with previous ALICE measurements for neutral K∗(892) within uncertainties. For pT > 1 GeV/c the K∗(892)± transverse momentum spectra become harder with increasing centre-of-mass energy from 5.02 to 13 TeV, similar to what previously observed for charged kaons and pions. For pT < 1 GeV/c the K∗(892)± yield does not evolve significantly and the abundance of K∗(892)± relative to K is rather independent of the collision energy. The transverse momentum spectra, measured for K∗(892)± at midrapidity in the interval 0 < pT < 15 GeV/c, are not well described by predictions of different versions of PYTHIA 6, PYTHIA 8 and EPOS-LHC event generators. These generators reproduce the measured pTintegrated K∗±/K ratios and describe well the momentum dependence for pT < 2 GeV/c.
The production of baryons and K0 S mesons (V0 particles) was measured in p–Pb collisions at √sNN = 5.02 TeV and pp collisions at √s = 7 TeV with ALICE at the LHC. The production of these strange particles is studied separately for particles associated with hard scatterings and the underlying event to shed light on the baryon-to-meson ratio enhancement observed at intermediate transverse momentum (pT) in high multiplicity pp and p–Pb collisions. Hard scatterings are selected on an eventby-event basis with jets reconstructed with the anti-kT algorithm using charged particles. The production of strange particles associated with jets pch T, jet > 10 and pch T, jet > 20 GeV/c in p–Pb collisions, and with jet pch T, jet > 10 GeV/c in pp collisions is reported as a function of pT. Its dependence on angular distance from the jet axis, R(V0, jet), for jets with pch T, jet > 10 GeV/c in p–Pb collisions is reported as well. The pT-differential production spectra of strange particles associated with jets are found to be harder compared to that in the underlying event and both differ from the inclusive measurements. In events containing a jet, the density of the V0 particles in the underlying event is found to be larger than the density in the minimum bias events. The /K0 S ratio associated with jets in p–Pb collisions is consistent with the ratio in pp collisions and follows the expectation of jets fragmenting in vacuum. On the other hand, this ratio within jets is consistently lower than the one obtained in the underlying event and it does not show the characteristic enhancement of baryons at intermediate pT often referred to as “baryon anomaly” in the inclusive measurements.
Neutral pion (π0) and η meson production cross sections were measured up to unprecedentedly high transverse momenta (pT) in p–Pb collisions at √sNN = 8.16 TeV. The mesons were reconstructed via their two-photon decay channel in the rapidity interval −1.3 < y < 0.3 in the ranges of 0.4 < pT < 200 GeV/c and 1.0 < pT < 50 GeV/c, respectively. The respective nuclear modification factor (RpPb) is presented for pT up to of 200 and 30 GeV/c, where the former was achieved by extending the π0 measurement in pp collisions at √s = 8 TeV using the merged cluster technique. The values of RpPb are below unity for pT < 10 GeV/c, while they are consistent with unity for pT > 10 GeV/c, leaving essentially no room for final state energy loss. The new data provide strong constraints for nuclear parton distribution and fragmentation functions over a broad kinematic range and are compared to model predictions as well as previous results at √sNN = 5.02 TeV.
The production of ϒ mesons in Pb–Pb collisions at a centre-of-mass energy per nucleon pair √sNN = 5.02 TeV is measured with the muon spectrometer of the ALICE detector at the LHC. The yields as well as the nuclear modification factors are determined in the forward rapidity region 2.5 < y < 4.0, as a function of rapidity, transverse momentum and collision centrality. The results show that the production of the ϒ(1S) meson is suppressed by a factor of about three with respect to the production in proton–proton collisions. For the first time, a significant signal for the ϒ(2S) meson is observed at forward rapidity, indicating a suppression stronger by about a factor 2–3 with respect to the ground state. The measurements are compared with transport, hydrodynamic, comover and statistical hadronisation model calculations.
The first measurement of the coherent photoproduction of ρ0 vector mesons in ultra-peripheral Xe–Xe collisions at √sNN = 5.44 TeV is presented. This result, together with previous HERA γ p data and γ –Pb measurements from ALICE, describes the atomic number (A) dependence of this process, which is particularly sensitive to nuclear shadowing effects and to the approach to the black-disc limit of QCD at a semi-hard scale. The cross section of the Xe + Xe → ρ0 + Xe + Xe process, measured at midrapidity through the decay channel ρ0 → π+π−, is found to be dσ/dy = 131.5 ± 5.6(stat.)+17.5 −16.9(syst.) mb. The ratio of the continuum to resonant contributions for the production of pion pairs is also measured. In addition, the fraction of events accompanied by electromagnetic dissociation of either one or both colliding nuclei is reported. The dependence on A of cross section for the coherent ρ0 photoproduction at a centre-of-mass energy per nucleon of the γ A system of Wγ A,n = 65 GeV is found to be consistent with a power-law behaviour σ(γ A → ρ0 A) ∝ Aα with a slope α = 0.96 ± 0.02(syst.). This slope signals important shadowing effects, but it is still far from the behaviour expected in the black-disc limit.
Deuteron production in high-energy collisions is sensitive to the space–time evolution of the collision system, and is typically described by a coalescence mechanism. For the first time, we present results on jet-associated deuteron production in pp collisions at √s = 13 TeV, providing an opportunity to test the established picture for deuteron production in events with a hard scattering. Using a trigger particle with high transverse-momentum (pT > 5 GeV/c) as a proxy for the presence of a jet at midrapidity, we observe a measurable population of deuterons being produced around the jet proxy. The associated deuteron yield measured in a narrow angular range around the trigger particle differs by 2.4–4.8 standard deviations from the uncorrelated background. The data are described by PYTHIA model calculations featuring baryon coalescence.
The first measurement of the cross section for coherent J/ψ photoproduction as a function of |t|, the square of the momentum transferred between the incoming and outgoing target nucleus, is presented. The data were measured with the ALICE detector in ultra-peripheral Pb–Pb collisions at a centre-of-mass energy per nucleon pair √sNN = 5.02 TeV with the J/ψ produced in the central rapidity region |y| < 0.8,
which corresponds to the small Bjorken-x range (0.3 − 1.4) × 10−3.
The measured |t|-dependence is not described by computations based only on the Pb nuclear form factor, while the photonuclear cross section is better reproduced by models including shadowing according to the leading-twist approximation, or gluon-saturation effects from the impact-parameter dependent Balitsky–Kovchegov equation. These new results are therefore a valid tool to constrain the relevant model parameters and to investigate the transverse gluonic structure at very low Bjorken-x.
The polarization of inclusive J/ψ and ϒ(1S) produced in Pb–Pb collisions at √sNN = 5.02 TeV at the LHC is measured with the ALICE detector. The study is carried out by reconstructing the quarkonium through its decay to muon pairs in the rapidity region 2.5 < y < 4 and measuring the polar and azimuthal angular distributions of the muons. The polarization parameters λθ , λφ and λθφ are measured in the helicity and Collins-Soper reference frames, in the transverse momentum interval 2 < pT < 10 GeV/c and pT < 15 GeV/c for the J/ψ and ϒ(1S), respectively. The polarization parameters for the J/ψ are found to be compatible with zero, within a maximum of about two standard deviations at low pT, for both reference frames and over the whole pT range. The values are compared with the corresponding results obtained for pp collisions at √s = 7 and 8 TeV in a similar kinematic region by the ALICE and LHCb experiments. Although with much larger uncertainties, the polarization parameters for ϒ(1S) production in Pb–Pb collisions are also consistent with zero.
Pion-kaon femtoscopy and the lifetime of the hadronic phase in Pb-Pb collisions at √sNN = 2.76 TeV
()
In this paper, the first femtoscopic analysis of pion–kaon correlations at the LHC is reported. The analysis was performed on the Pb–Pb collision data at √sNN = 2.76 TeV recorded with the ALICE detector. The non-identical particle correlations probe the spatio-temporal separation between sources of different particle species as well as the average source size of the emitting system. The sizes of the pion and kaon sources increase with centrality, and pions are emitted closer to the centre of the system and/or later than kaons. This is naturally expected in a system with strong radial flow and is qualitatively reproduced by hydrodynamic models. ALICE data on pion–kaon emission asymmetry are consistent with (3+1)-dimensional viscous hydrodynamics coupled to a statistical hadronisation model, resonance propagation, and decay code THERMINATOR 2 calculation, with an additional time delay between 1 and 2 fm/c for kaons. The delay can be interpreted as evidence for a significant hadronic rescattering phase in heavy-ion collisions at the LHC.
In this letter, measurements of the shared momentum fraction (zg) and the groomed jet radius (Rg), as defined in the SoftDrop algorithm, are reported in p+p collisions at √s = 200 GeV collected by the STAR experiment. These substructure observables are differentially measured for jets of varying resolution parameters from R = 0.2 − 0.6 in the transverse momentum range 15 < pT,jet < 60 GeV/c. These studies show that, in the pT,jet range accessible at √s = 200 GeV and with increasing jet resolution parameter and jet transverse momentum, the zg distribution asymptotically converges to the DGLAP splitting kernel for a quark radiating a gluon. The groomed jet radius measurements reflect a momentum-dependent narrowing of the jet structure for jets of a given resolution parameter, i.e., the larger the pT,jet, the narrower the first splitting. For the first time, these fully corrected measurements are compared to Monte Carlo generators with leading order QCD matrix elements and leading log in the parton shower, and to state-of-the-art theoretical calculations at next-to-leading-log accuracy. We observe that PYTHIA 6 with parameters tuned to reproduce RHIC measurements is able to quantitatively describe data, whereas PYTHIA 8 and HERWIG 7, tuned to reproduce LHC data, are unable to provide a simultaneous description of both zg and Rg, resulting in opportunities for fine parameter tuning of these models for p+p collisions at RHIC energies. We also find that the theoretical calculations without non-perturbative corrections are able to qualitatively describe the trend in data for jets of large resolution parameters at high pT,jet, but fail at small jet resolution parameters and low jet transverse momenta.
We report on the measurement of the size of the particle-emitting source from two-baryon correlations with ALICE in high-multiplicity pp collisions at √s = 13 TeV. The source radius is studied with low relative momentum p–p, p–p, p–, and p– pairs as a function of the pair transverse mass mT considering for the first time in a quantitative way the effect of strong resonance decays. After correcting for this effect, the radii extracted for pairs of different particle species agree. This indicates that protons, antiprotons, s, and s originate from the same source. Within the measured mT range (1.1–2.2) GeV/c2 the invariant radius of this common source varies between 1.3 and 0.85 fm. These results provide a precise reference for studies of the strong hadron–hadron interactions and for the investigation of collective properties in small colliding systems.
Multiplicity dependence of inclusive J/ψ production at midrapidity in pp collisions at √s = 13 TeV
()
Measurements of the inclusive J/ψ yield as a function of charged-particle pseudorapidity density dNch/dη in pp collisions at √s = 13 TeV with ALICE at the LHC are reported. The J/ψ meson yield is measured at midrapidity (|y| < 0.9) in the dielectron channel, for events selected based on the charged-particle multiplicity at midrapidity (|η| < 1) and at forward rapidity (−3.7 < η < −1.7 and 2.8 < η < 5.1); both observables are normalized to their corresponding averages in minimum bias events. The increase of the normalized J/ψ yield with normalized dNch/dη is significantly stronger than linear and dependent on the transverse momentum. The data are compared to theoretical predictions, which describe the observed trends well, albeit not always quantitatively.
Investigation of the linear and mode-coupled flow harmonics in Au+Au collisions at √sNN = 200 GeV
()
Flow harmonics (vn) of the Fourier expansion for the azimuthal distributions of hadrons are commonly employed to quantify the azimuthal anisotropy of particle production relative to the collision symmetry planes. While lower order Fourier coefficients (v2 and v3) are more directly related to the corresponding eccentricities of the initial state, the higher-order flow harmonics (vn>3) can be induced by a modecoupled response to the lower-order anisotropies, in addition to a linear response to the same-order anisotropies. These higher-order flow harmonics and their linear and mode-coupled contributions can be used to more precisely constrain the initial conditions and the transport properties of the medium in theoretical models. The multiparticle azimuthal cumulant method is used to measure the linear and mode-coupled contributions in the higher-order anisotropic flow, the mode-coupled response coefficients, and the correlations of the event plane angles for charged particles as functions of centrality and transverse momentum in Au+Au collisions at nucleon-nucleon center-of-mass energy √sN N= 200 GeV. The results are compared to similar LHC measurements as well as to several viscous hydrodynamic calculations with varying initial conditions.
We report results on the total and elastic cross sections in proton-proton collisions at √s = 200 GeV obtained with the Roman Pot setup of the STAR experiment at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC). The elastic differential cross section was measured in the squared four-momentum transfer range 0.045 ≤ −t ≤ 0.135 GeV2. The value of the exponential slope parameter B of the elastic differential cross section dσ/dt ∼ e−Bt in the measured −t range was found to be B = 14.32 ± 0.09(stat.)+0.13 −0.28(syst.) GeV−2. The total cross section σtot, obtained from extrapolation of the dσ/dt to the optical point at −t = 0, is σtot = 54.67 ± 0.21(stat.)+1.28 −1.38(syst.) mb. We also present the values of the elastic cross section σel = 10.85 ± 0.03(stat.)+0..49 −0.41(syst.) mb, the elastic cross section integrated within the STAR t-range σ det el = 4.05 ± 0.01(stat.)+0.18−0.17(syst.) mb, and the inelastic cross section σinel = 43.82 ± 0.21(stat.)+1.37−1.44(syst.) mb. The results are compared with the world data
Quark interactions with topological gluon configurations can induce chirality imbalance and local parity violation in quantum chromodynamics. This can lead to electric charge separation along the strong magnetic field in relativistic heavy-ion collisions – the chiral magnetic effect (CME). We report measurements by the STAR collaboration of a CME-sensitive observable in p + Au and d + Au collisions at 200 GeV, where the CME is not expected, using charge-dependent pair correlations relative to a third particle. We observe strong charge-dependent correlations similar to those measured in heavy-ion collisions. This bears important implications for the interpretation of the heavy-ion data.
The transversity distribution, which describes transversely polarized quarks in transversely polarized nucleons, is a fundamental component of the spin structure of the nucleon, and is only loosely constrained by global fits to existing semi-inclusive deep inelastic scattering (SIDIS) data. In transversely polarized p↑+p collisions it can be accessed using transverse polarization dependent fragmentation functions which give rise to azimuthal correlations between the polarization of the struck parton and the final state scalar mesons.This letter reports on spin dependent di-hadron correlations measured by the STAR experiment. The new dataset corresponds to 25 pb−1 integrated luminosity of p↑+p collisions at s=500 GeV, an increase of more than a factor of ten compared to our previous measurement at s=200 GeV. Non-zero asymmetries sensitive to transversity are observed at a Q2 of several hundred GeV and are found to be consistent with the former measurement and a model calculation. We expect that these data will enable an extraction of transversity with comparable precision to current SIDIS datasets but at much higher momentum transfers where subleading effects are suppressed.
The production yield and angular anisotropy of prompt D+ s mesons were measured as a function of transverse momentum (pT) in Pb–Pb collisions at a centre-of-mass energy per nucleon pair √sNN = 5.02 TeV collected with the ALICE detector at the LHC. D+ s mesons and their charge conjugates were reconstructed at midrapidity (|y| < 0.5) from their hadronic decay channel D+ s → φπ+, with φ → K−K+, in the pT intervals 2 < pT < 50 GeV/c and 2 < pT < 36 GeV/c for the 0–10% and 30–50% centrality intervals. For pT > 10 GeV/c, the measured D+ s -meson nuclear modification factor RAA is consistent with the one of non-strange D mesons within uncertainties, while at lower pT a hint for a D+ s -meson RAA larger than that of non-strange D mesons is seen. The enhanced production of D+ s relative to nonstrange D mesons is also studied by comparing the pT-dependent D+ s /D0 production yield ratios in Pb–Pb and in pp collisions. The ratio measured in Pb–Pb collisions is found to be on average higher than that in pp collisions in the interval 2 < pT < 8 GeV/c with a significance of 2.3σ and 2.4σ for the 0–10% and 30–50% centrality intervals. The azimuthal anisotropy coefficient v2 of prompt D+ s mesons was measured in Pb–Pb collisions in the 30–50% centrality interval and is found to be compatible with that of non-strange D mesons. The main features of the measured RAA, D+ s /D0 ratio, and v2 as a function of pT are described by theoretical calculations of charm-quark transport in a hydrodynamically expanding quark–gluon plasma including hadronisation via charm-quark recombination with light quarks from the medium. The pT-integrated production yield of D+s mesons is compatible with the prediction of the statistical hadronisation model.
Measurements of the production of muons from heavy-flavour hadron decays in Pb–Pb collisions at √sNN = 5.02 and 2.76 TeV using the ALICE detector at the LHC are reported. The nuclear modification factor RAA at √sNN = 5.02 TeV is measured at forward rapidity (2.5 < y < 4) as a function of transverse momentum pT in central, semi-central, and peripheral collisions over a wide pT interval, 3 < pT < 20 GeV/c, in which muons from beauty-hadron decays are expected to take over from charm as the dominant source at high pT (pT > 7 GeV/c). The RAA shows an increase of the suppression of the yields of muons from heavy-flavour hadron decays with increasing centrality. A suppression by a factor of about three is observed in the 10% most central collisions. The RAA at √sNN = 5.02 TeV is similar to that at √sNN = 2.76 TeV. The precise RAA measurements have the potential to distinguish between model predictions implementing different mechanisms of parton energy loss in the high-density medium formed in heavy-ion collisions. They place important constraints for the understanding of the heavy-quark interaction with the hot and dense QCD medium.
The first measurements of the production of muons and electrons from heavy-flavour hadron decays in Xe–Xe collisions at √sNN = 5.44 TeV, using the ALICE detector at the LHC, are reported. The measurement of the nuclear modification factor RAA is performed as a function of transverse momentum pT in several centrality classes at forward rapidity (2.5 < y < 4) and midrapidity (|y| < 0.8) for muons and electrons from heavy-flavour hadron decays, respectively. A suppression by a factor up to about 2.5 compared to the binary-scaled pp reference is observed in central collisions at both central and forward rapidities. The RAA of muons from heavy-flavour hadron decays is compared to previous measurements in Pb–Pb collisions at √sNN = 5.02 TeV. When the nuclear modification factors are compared in the centrality classes 0–10% for Xe–Xe collisions and 10–20% for Pb–Pb collisions, which have similar charged-particle multiplicity density, a similar suppression, with RAA ∼ 0.4 in the pT interval 4 < pT < 8 GeV/c, is observed. The comparison of the measured RAA values in the two collision systems brings new insights on the properties of the quark-gluon plasma by investigating the system-size and geometry dependence of medium-induced parton energy loss. The results of muons and electrons from heavy-flavour hadron decays provide new constraints to model calculations.
J/ψ suppression has long been considered a sensitive signature of the formation of the Quark-Gluon Plasma (QGP) in relativistic heavy-ion collisions. In this letter, we present the first measurement of inclusive J/ψ production at mid-rapidity through the dimuon decay channel in Au+Au collisions at √sNN = 200 GeV with the STAR experiment. These measurements became possible after the installation of the Muon Telescope Detector was completed in 2014. The J/ψ yields are measured in a wide transverse momentum (pT) range of 0.15 GeV/c to 12 GeV/c from central to peripheral collisions. They extend the kinematic reach of previous measurements at RHIC with improved precision. In the 0-10% most central collisions, the J/ψ yield is suppressed by a factor of approximately 3 for pT > 5 GeV/c relative to that in p + p collisions scaled by the number of binary nucleon-nucleon collisions. The J/ψ nuclear modification factor displays little dependence on pT in all centrality bins. Model calculations can qualitatively describe the data, providing further evidence for the color-screening effect experienced by J/ψ mesons in the QGP.
The elliptic and triangular flow coefficients v2 and v3 of prompt D0, D+, and D∗+ mesons were measured at midrapidity (|y| < 0.8) in Pb–Pb collisions at the centre-of-mass energy per nucleon pair of √sNN = 5.02 TeV with the ALICE detector at the LHC. The D mesons were reconstructed via their hadronic decays in the transverse momentum interval 1 < pT < 36 GeV/c in central (0–10%) and semi-central (30–50%) collisions. Compared to pions, protons, and J/ψ mesons, the average D-meson vn harmonics are compatible within uncertainties with a mass hierarchy for pT 3 GeV/c, and are similar to those of charged pions for higher pT. The coupling of the charm quark to the light quarks in the underlying medium is further investigated with the application of the event-shape engineering (ESE) technique to the D-meson v2 and pT-differential yields. The D-meson v2 is correlated with average bulk elliptic flow in both central and semi-central collisions. Within the current precision, the ratios of per-event Dmeson yields in the ESE-selected and unbiased samples are found to be compatible with unity. All the measurements are found to be reasonably well described by theoretical calculations including the effects of charm-quark transport and the recombination of charm quarks with light quarks in a hydrodynamically expanding medium.
A measurement of charged hadron pair correlations in two-dimensional ηφ space is presented. The analysis is based on total 30 million central Be + Be collisions observed in the NA61/SHINE detector at the CERN SPS for incident beam momenta of 19A, 30A, 40A, 75A, and 150A GeV/c. Measurements were carried out for unlike-sign and like-sign charge hadron pairs independently. The C(η, φ) correlation functions were compared with results from a similar analysis on p + p interactions at similar beam momenta per nucleon. General trends of the backto-back correlations are similar in central Be + Be collisions and p + p interactions, but are suppressed in magnitude due to the increased combinatorial background. Predictions from the Epos and UrQMD models are compared to the measurements. Evolution of an enhancement around (η, φ) = (0, 0) with incident energy is observed in central Be + Be collisions. It is not predicted by both models and almost non-existing in proton–proton collisions at the same momentum per nucleon.
The production of Ξ(1321)− and Ξ¯¯¯¯(1321)+ hyperons in inelastic p+p interactions is studied in a fixed target experiment at a beam momentum of 158 GeV/c. Double differential distributions in rapidity y and transverse momentum pT are obtained from a sample of 33M inelastic events. They allow to extrapolate the spectra to full phase space and to determine the mean multiplicity of both Ξ− and Ξ¯¯¯¯+. The rapidity and transverse momentum spectra are compared to transport model predictions. The Ξ− mean multiplicity in inelastic p+p interactions at 158 GeV/c is used to quantify the strangeness enhancement in A+A collisions at the same centre-of-mass energy per nucleon pair.
his Erratum replaces incorrect plots shown in Fig. 7 with the corrected ones. In the publication, the NA57 [1] ratios of Ξ− and Ξ¯¯¯¯+ to the number of wounded nucleons at ⟨NW⟩=349 by mistake were plotted at the wrong values. The ratios were calculated and plotted by mistake using ⟨NW⟩=249.
The correct normalization does not change the conclusions of the paper. The correctly normalized results are presented in Fig. 7.
We present measurements of ρ0, ω and K∗0 spectra in π−+ C production interactions at 158 GeV / c and ρ0 spectra at 350 GeV / c using the NA61/SHINE spectrometer at the CERN SPS. Spectra are presented as a function of the Feynman’s variable xF in the range 0<xF<1 and 0<xF<0.5 for 158 and 350 GeV / c respectively. Furthermore, we show comparisons with previous measurements and predictions of several hadronic interaction models. These measurements are essential for a better understanding of hadronic shower development and for improving the modeling of cosmic ray air showers.
The physics goal of the strong interaction program of the NA61/SHINE experiment at the CERN Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS) is to study the phase diagram of hadronic matter by a scan of particle production in collisions of nuclei with various sizes at a set of energies covering the SPS energy range. This paper presents differential inclusive spectra of transverse momentum, transverse mass and rapidity of π− mesons produced in central 40Ar+45Sc collisions at beam momenta of 13A, 19A, 30A, 40A, 75A and 150A Ge V /c. Energy and system size dependence of parameters of these distributions – mean transverse mass, the inverse slope parameter of transverse mass spectra, width of the rapidity distribution and mean multiplicity – are presented and discussed. Furthermore, the dependence of the ratio of the mean number of produced pions to the mean number of wounded nucleons on the collision energy was derived. The results are compared to predictions of several models.
The multiplicity dependence of jet production in pp collisions at the centre-of-mass energy of s√=13 TeV is studied for the first time. Jets are reconstructed from charged particles using the anti-kT algorithm with resolution parameters R varying from 0.2 to 0.7. The jets are measured in the pseudorapidity range |ηjet|<0.9−R and in the transverse momentum range 5<pchT,jet<140 GeV/c. The multiplicity intervals are categorised by the ALICE forward detector V0. The pT differential cross section of charged-particle jets are compared to leading order (LO) and next-to-leading order (NLO) perturbative quantum chromodynamics (pQCD) calculations. It is found that the data are better described by the NLO calculation, although the NLO prediction overestimates the jet cross section below 20 GeV/c. The cross section ratios for different R are also measured and compared to model calculations. These measurements provide insights into the angular dependence of jet fragmentation. The jet yield increases with increasing self-normalised charged-particle multiplicity. This increase shows only a weak dependence on jet transverse momentum and resolution parameter at the highest multiplicity. While such behaviour is qualitatively described by the present version of PYTHIA, quantitative description may require implementing new mechanisms for multi-particle production in hadronic collisions.
The study of the production of nuclei and antinuclei in pp collisions has proven to be a powerful tool to investigate the formation mechanism of loosely bound states in high-energy hadronic collisions. In this paper, the production of protons, deuterons and 3He and their charge conjugates at midrapidity is studied as a function of the charged-particle multiplicity in inelastic pp collisions at s√=5.02 TeV using the ALICE detector. Within the uncertainties, the yields of nuclei in pp collisions at s√=5.02 TeV are compatible with those in pp collisions at different energies and to those in p–Pb collisions when compared at similar multiplicities. The measurements are compared with the expectations of coalescence and Statistical Hadronisation Models. The results suggest a common formation mechanism behind the production of light nuclei in hadronic interactions and confirm that they do not depend on the collision energy but on the number of produced particles.
Two-particle Azimuthal correlations are measured with the ALICE apparatus in pp collisions at s√=13 TeV to explore strangeness- and multiplicity-related effects in the fragmentation of jets and the transition regime between bulk and hard production, probed with the condition that a strange meson (KS0) or baryon (Λ) with transverse momentum pT>3 GeV/c is produced. Azimuthal correlations between kaons or Λ hyperons with other hadrons are presented at midrapidity for a broad range of the trigger (3<ptriggT<20 GeV/c) and associated particle pT (1 GeV/c <passocT<ptriggT), for minimum-bias events and as a function of the event multiplicity. The near- and away-side peak yields are compared for the case of either KS0 or Λ(Λ¯¯¯¯) being the trigger particle with that of inclusive hadrons (a sample dominated by pions). In addition, the measurements are compared with predictions from PYTHIA 8 and EPOS LHC event generators.
The coherent photoproduction of J/ψ and ψ′ mesons was measured in ultra-peripheral Pb–Pb collisions at a center-of-mass energy sNN−−−√ = 5.02 TeV with the ALICE detector. Charmonia are detected in the central rapidity region for events where the hadronic interactions are strongly suppressed. The J/ψ is reconstructed using the dilepton (l+l−) and proton–antiproton decay channels, while for the ψ′ the dilepton and the l+l−π+π− decay channels are studied. The analysis is based on an event sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of about 233 μb−1. The results are compared with theoretical models for coherent J/ψ and ψ′ photoproduction. The coherent cross section is found to be in a good agreement with models incorporating moderate nuclear gluon shadowing of about 0.64 at a Bjorken-x of around 6×10−4, such as the EPS09 parametrization, however none of the models is able to fully describe the rapidity dependence of the coherent J/ψ cross section including ALICE measurements at forward rapidity. The ratio of ψ′ to J/ψ coherent photoproduction cross sections was also measured and found to be consistent with the one for photoproduction off protons.
The invariant differential cross section of inclusive ω(782) meson production at midrapidity (|y|<0.5) in pp collisions at s√=7TeV was measured with the ALICE detector at the LHC over a transverse momentum range of 2<pT<17GeV/c. The ω meson was reconstructed via its ω→π+π−π0 decay channel. The measured ω production cross section is compared to various calculations: PYTHIA 8.2 Monash 2013 describes the data, while PYTHIA 8.2 Tune 4C overestimates the data by about 50%. A recent NLO calculation, which includes a model describing the fragmentation of the whole vector-meson nonet, describes the data within uncertainties below 6GeV/c, while it overestimates the data by up to 50% for higher pT. The ω/π0 ratio is in agreement with previous measurements at lower collision energies and the PYTHIA calculations. In addition, the measurement is compatible with transverse mass scaling within the measured pT range and the ratio is constant with Cω/π0=0.67±0.03~(stat)~±0.04~(sys)~ above a transverse momentum of 2.5GeV/c.
The energy deposited at very forward rapidities (very forward energy) is a powerful tool for characterising proton fragmentation in pp and p-Pb collisions. The correlation of very forward energy with particle production at midrapidity provides direct insights into the initial stages and the subsequent evolution of the collision. Furthermore, the correlation with the production of particles with large transverse momenta at midrapidity provides information complementary to the measurements of the underlying event, which are usually interpreted in the framework of models implementing centrality-dependent multiple parton interactions.
Results about very forward energy, measured by the ALICE zero degree calorimeters (ZDCs), and its dependence on the activity measured at midrapidity in pp collisions at s√ = 13 TeV and in p-Pb collisions at sNN−−−√ = 8.16 TeV are discussed. The measurements performed in pp collisions are compared with the expectations of three hadronic interaction event generators: PYTHIA 6 (Perugia 2011 tune), PYTHIA 8 (Monash tune), and EPOS LHC. These results provide new constraints on the validity of models in describing the beam remnants at very forward rapidities, where perturbative QCD cannot be used.
Inclusive, prompt and non-prompt J/ψ production at midrapidity in p-Pb collisions at √sNN = 5.02 TeV
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A measurement of inclusive, prompt, and non-prompt J/ψ production in p-Pb collisions at a nucleon-nucleon centre-of-mass energy sNN−−−√ = 5.02 TeV is presented. The inclusive J/ψ mesons are reconstructed in the dielectron decay channel at midrapidity down to a transverse momentum pT = 0. The inclusive J/ψ nuclear modification factor RpPb is calculated by comparing the new results in p-Pb collisions to a recently measured proton-proton reference at the same centre-of-mass energy. Non-prompt J/ψ mesons, which originate from the decay of beauty hadrons, are separated from promptly produced J/ψ on a statistical basis for pT larger than 1.0 GeV/c. These results are based on the data sample collected by the ALICE detector during the 2016 LHC p-Pb run, corresponding to an integrated luminosity Lint = 292 ± 11 μb−1, which is six times larger than the previous publications. The total uncertainty on the pT-integrated inclusive J/ψ and non-prompt J/ψ cross section are reduced by a factor 1.7 and 2.2, respectively. The measured cross sections and RpPb are compared with theoretical models that include various combinations of cold nuclear matter effects. From the non-prompt J/ψ production cross section, the bb¯¯¯ production cross section at midrapidity, dσbb¯¯¯/dy, and the total cross section extrapolated over full phase space, σbb¯¯¯, are derived.
The production of J/ψ is measured as a function of charged-particle multiplicity at forward rapidity in proton-proton (pp) collisions at center-of-mass energies s√ = 5.02 and 13 TeV. The J/ψ mesons are reconstructed via their decay into dimuons in the rapidity interval (2.5 < y < 4.0), whereas the charged-particle multiplicity density (dNch/dη) is measured at midrapidity (|η| < 1). The production rate as a function of multiplicity is reported as the ratio of the yield in a given multiplicity interval to the multiplicity-integrated one. This observable shows a linear increase with charged-particle multiplicity normalized to the corresponding average value for inelastic events (dNch/dη/〈dNch/dη〉), at both the colliding energies. Measurements are compared with available ALICE results at midrapidity and theoretical model calculations. First measurement of the mean transverse momentum (〈pT〉) of J/ψ in pp collisions exhibits an increasing trend as a function of dNch/dη/〈dNch/dη〉 showing a saturation towards high charged-particle multiplicities.
The production of J/ψ is measured at midrapidity (|y| < 0.9) in proton-proton collisions at s√ = 5.02 and 13 TeV, through the dielectron decay channel, using the ALICE detector at the Large Hadron Collider. The data sets used for the analyses correspond to integrated luminosities of Lint = 19.4 ± 0.4 nb−1 and Lint = 32.2 ± 0.5 nb−1 at s√ = 5.02 and 13 TeV, respectively. The fraction of non-prompt J/ψ mesons, i.e. those originating from the decay of beauty hadrons, is measured down to a transverse momentum pT = 2 GeV/c (1 GeV/c) at s√ = 5.02 TeV (13 TeV). The pT and rapidity (y) differential cross sections, as well as the corresponding values integrated over pT and y, are carried out separately for prompt and non-prompt J/ψ mesons. The results are compared with measurements from other experiments and theoretical calculations based on quantum chromodynamics (QCD). The shapes of the pT and y distributions of beauty quarks predicted by state-of-the-art perturbative QCD models are used to extrapolate an estimate of the bb¯¯¯ pair cross section at midrapidity and in the total phase space. The total bb¯¯¯ cross sections are found to be σbb¯¯¯ = 541 ± 45 (stat.) ± 69 (syst.)+10−12 (extr.) μb and σbb¯¯¯ = 218±37 (stat.)±31 (syst.)+8.2−9.1 (extr.) μb at s√ = 13 and 5.02 TeV, respectively. The value obtained from the combination of ALICE and LHCb measurements in pp collisions at s√ = 13 TeV is also provided.
The jet angularities are a class of jet substructure observables which characterize the angular and momentum distribution of particles within jets. These observables are sensitive to momentum scales ranging from perturbative hard scatterings to nonperturbative fragmentation into final-state hadrons. We report measurements of several groomed and ungroomed jet angularities in pp collisions at s√ = 5.02 TeV with the ALICE detector. Jets are reconstructed using charged particle tracks at midrapidity (|η| < 0.9). The anti-kT algorithm is used with jet resolution parameters R = 0.2 and R = 0.4 for several transverse momentum pchT jet intervals in the 20–100 GeV/c range. Using the jet grooming algorithm Soft Drop, the sensitivity to softer, wide-angle processes, as well as the underlying event, can be reduced in a way which is well-controlled in theoretical calculations. We report the ungroomed jet angularities, λα, and groomed jet angularities, λα,g, to investigate the interplay between perturbative and nonperturbative effects at low jet momenta. Various angular exponent parameters α = 1, 1.5, 2, and 3 are used to systematically vary the sensitivity of the observable to collinear and soft radiation. Results are compared to analytical predictions at next-to-leading-logarithmic accuracy, which provide a generally good description of the data in the perturbative regime but exhibit discrepancies in the nonperturbative regime. Moreover, these measurements serve as a baseline for future ones in heavy-ion collisions by providing new insight into the interplay between perturbative and nonperturbative effects in the angular and momentum substructure of jets. They supply crucial guidance on the selection of jet resolution parameter, jet transverse momentum, and angular scaling variable for jet quenching studies.
A measurement of the inclusive b-jet production cross section is presented in pp and p-Pb collisions at sNN−−−√ = 5.02 TeV, using data collected with the ALICE detector at the LHC. The jets were reconstructed in the central rapidity region |η| < 0.5 from charged particles using the anti-kT algorithm with resolution parameter R = 0.4. Identification of b jets exploits the long lifetime of b hadrons, using the properties of secondary vertices and impact parameter distributions. The pT-differential inclusive production cross section of b jets, as well as the corresponding inclusive b-jet fraction, are reported for pp and p-Pb collisions in the jet transverse momentum range 10 ≤ pT,ch jet ≤ 100 GeV/c, together with the nuclear modification factor, Rb−jetpPb. The analysis thus extends the lower pT limit of b-jet measurements at the LHC. The nuclear modification factor is found to be consistent with unity, indicating that the production of b jets in p-Pb at sNN−−−√ = 5.02 TeV is not affected by cold nuclear matter effects within the current precision. The measurements are well reproduced by POWHEG NLO pQCD calculations with PYTHIA fragmentation.
Understanding the production mechanism of light (anti)nuclei is one of the key challenges of nuclear physics and has important consequences for astrophysics, since it provides an input for indirect dark-matter searches in space. In this paper, the latest results about the production of light (anti)nuclei in pp collisions at s√ = 13 TeV are presented, focusing on the comparison with the predictions of coalescence and thermal models. For the first time, the coalescence parameters B2 for deuterons and B3 for helions are compared with parameter-free theoretical predictions that are directly constrained by the femtoscopic measurement of the source radius in the same event class. A fair description of the data with a Gaussian wave function is observed for both deuteron and helion, supporting the coalescence mechanism for the production of light (anti)nuclei in pp collisions. This method paves the way for future investigations of the internal structure of more complex nuclear clusters, including the hypertriton.
Measurements of elliptic (v2) and triangular (v3) flow coefficients of π±, K±, p+p¯¯¯, K0S, and Λ+Λ¯¯¯¯ obtained with the scalar product method in Xe-Xe collisions at sNN−−−√ = 5.44 TeV are presented. The results are obtained in the rapidity range |y| < 0.5 and reported as a function of transverse momentum, pT, for several collision centrality classes. The flow coefficients exhibit a particle mass dependence for pT < 3 GeV/c, while a grouping according to particle type (i.e., meson and baryon) is found at intermediate transverse momenta (3 < pT < 8 GeV/c). The magnitude of the baryon v2 is larger than that of mesons up to pT = 6 GeV/c. The centrality dependence of the shape evolution of the pT-differential v2 is studied for the various hadron species. The v2 coefficients of π±, K±, and p+p¯¯¯ are reproduced by MUSIC hydrodynamic calculations coupled to a hadronic cascade model (UrQMD) for pT < 1 GeV/c. A comparison with vn measurements in the corresponding centrality intervals in Pb-Pb collisions at sNN−−−√ = 5.02 TeV yields an enhanced v2 in central collisions and diminished value in semicentral collisions.
The ALICE Collaboration reports the first fully-corrected measurements of the N-subjettiness observable for track-based jets in heavy-ion collisions. This study is performed using data recorded in pp and Pb-Pb collisions at centre-of-mass energies of s√ = 7 TeV and sNN−−−√ = 2.76 TeV, respectively. In particular the ratio of 2-subjettiness to 1-subjettiness, τ2/τ1, which is sensitive to the rate of two-pronged jet substructure, is presented. Energy loss of jets traversing the strongly interacting medium in heavy-ion collisions is expected to change the rate of two-pronged substructure relative to vacuum. The results are presented for jets with a resolution parameter of R = 0.4 and charged jet transverse momentum of 40 ≤ pT,jet ≤ 60 GeV/c, which constitute a larger jet resolution and lower jet transverse momentum interval than previous measurements in heavy-ion collisions. This has been achieved by utilising a semi-inclusive hadron-jet coincidence technique to suppress the larger jet combinatorial background in this kinematic region. No significant modification of the τ2/τ1 observable for track-based jets in Pb-Pb collisions is observed relative to vacuum PYTHIA6 and PYTHIA8 references at the same collision energy. The measurements of τ2/τ1, together with the splitting aperture angle ∆R, are also performed in pp collisions at s√ = 7 TeV for inclusive jets. These results are compared with PYTHIA calculations at s√ = 7 TeV, in order to validate the model as a vacuum reference for the Pb-Pb centre-of-mass energy. The PYTHIA references for τ2/τ1 are shifted to larger values compared to the measurement in pp collisions. This hints at a reduction in the rate of two-pronged jets in Pb-Pb collisions compared to pp collisions.
Jet fragmentation transverse momentum distributions in pp and p-Pb collisions at √s, √sNN = 5.02 TeV
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Jet fragmentation transverse momentum (jT) distributions are measured in proton-proton (pp) and proton-lead (p-Pb) collisions at sNN−−−√ = 5.02 TeV with the ALICE experiment at the LHC. Jets are reconstructed with the ALICE tracking detectors and electromagnetic calorimeter using the anti-kT algorithm with resolution parameter R = 0.4 in the pseudorapidity range |η| < 0.25. The jT values are calculated for charged particles inside a fixed cone with a radius R = 0.4 around the reconstructed jet axis. The measured jT distributions are compared with a variety of parton-shower models. Herwig and PYTHIA 8 based models describe the data well for the higher jT region, while they underestimate the lower jT region. The jT distributions are further characterised by fitting them with a function composed of an inverse gamma function for higher jT values (called the “wide component”), related to the perturbative component of the fragmentation process, and with a Gaussian for lower jT values (called the “narrow component”), predominantly connected to the hadronisation process. The width of the Gaussian has only a weak dependence on jet transverse momentum, while that of the inverse gamma function increases with increasing jet transverse momentum. For the narrow component, the measured trends are successfully described by all models except for Herwig. For the wide component, Herwig and PYTHIA 8 based models slightly underestimate the data for the higher jet transverse momentum region. These measurements set constraints on models of jet fragmentation and hadronisation.
Two-particle angular correlations are measured in high-multiplicity proton-proton collisions at s√ = 13 TeV by the ALICE Collaboration. The yields of particle pairs at short-(∆η ∼ 0) and long-range (1.6 < |∆η| < 1.8) in pseudorapidity are extracted on the near-side (∆φ ∼ 0). They are reported as a function of transverse momentum (pT) in the range 1 < pT < 4 GeV/c. Furthermore, the event-scale dependence is studied for the first time by requiring the presence of high-pT leading particles or jets for varying pT thresholds. The results demonstrate that the long-range “ridge” yield, possibly related to the collective behavior of the system, is present in events with high-pT processes as well. The magnitudes of the short- and long-range yields are found to grow with the event scale. The results are compared to EPOS LHC and PYTHIA 8 calculations, with and without string-shoving interactions. It is found that while both models describe the qualitative trends in the data, calculations from EPOS LHC show a better quantitative agreement for the pT dependency, while overestimating the event-scale dependency.
Angular correlations of heavy-flavour and charged particles in high-energy proton–proton collisions are sensitive to the production mechanisms of heavy quarks and to their fragmentation as well as hadronisation processes. The measurement of the azimuthal-correlation function of prompt D mesons with charged particles in proton–proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of s√=13 TeV with the ALICE detector is reported, considering D0, D+, and D∗+ mesons in the transverse-momentum interval 3<pT<36 GeV/c at midrapidity (|y|<0.5), and charged particles with pT>0.3 GeV/c and pseudorapidity |η|<0.8. This measurement has an improved precision and provides an extended transverse-momentum coverage compared to previous ALICE measurements at lower energies. The study is also performed as a function of the charged-particle multiplicity, showing no modifications of the correlation function with multiplicity within uncertainties. The properties and the transverse-momentum evolution of the near- and away-side correlation peaks are studied and compared with predictions from various Monte Carlo event generators. Among those considered, PYTHIA8 and POWHEG+PYTHIA8 provide the best description of the measured observables. The obtained results can provide guidance on tuning the generators.
The inclusive production of the J/ψ and ψ(2S) charmonium states is studied as a function of centrality in p-Pb collisions at a centre-of-mass energy per nucleon pair sNN−−−√ = 8.16 TeV at the LHC. The measurement is performed in the dimuon decay channel with the ALICE apparatus in the centre-of-mass rapidity intervals −4.46 < ycms < −2.96 (Pb-going direction) and 2.03 < ycms < 3.53 (p-going direction), down to zero transverse momentum (pT). The J/ψ and ψ(2S) production cross sections are evaluated as a function of the collision centrality, estimated through the energy deposited in the zero degree calorimeter located in the Pb-going direction. The pT-differential J/ψ production cross section is measured at backward and forward rapidity for several centrality classes, together with the corresponding average 〈pT〉 and ⟨p2T⟩ values. The nuclear effects affecting the production of both charmonium states are studied using the nuclear modification factor. In the p-going direction, a suppression of the production of both charmonium states is observed, which seems to increase from peripheral to central collisions. In the Pb-going direction, however, the centrality dependence is different for the two states: the nuclear modification factor of the J/ψ increases from below unity in peripheral collisions to above unity in central collisions, while for the ψ(2S) it stays below or consistent with unity for all centralities with no significant centrality dependence. The results are compared with measurements in p-Pb collisions at sNN−−−√ = 5.02 TeV and no significant dependence on the energy of the collision is observed. Finally, the results are compared with theoretical models implementing various nuclear matter effects.
The inclusive J/ψ elliptic (v2) and triangular (v3) flow coefficients measured at forward rapidity (2.5 < y < 4) and the v2 measured at midrapidity (|y| < 0.9) in Pb-Pb collisions at sNN−−−√ = 5.02 TeV using the ALICE detector at the LHC are reported. The entire Pb-Pb data sample collected during Run 2 is employed, amounting to an integrated luminosity of 750 μb−1 at forward rapidity and 93 μb−1 at midrapidity. The results are obtained using the scalar product method and are reported as a function of transverse momentum pT and collision centrality. At midrapidity, the J/ψ v2 is in agreement with the forward rapidity measurement. The centrality averaged results indicate a positive J/ψ v3 with a significance of more than 5σ at forward rapidity in the pT range 2 < pT < 5 GeV/c. The forward rapidity v2, v3, and v3/v2 results at low and intermediate pT (pT ≲ 8 GeV/c) exhibit a mass hierarchy when compared to pions and D mesons, while converging into a species-independent curve at higher pT. At low and intermediate pT, the results could be interpreted in terms of a later thermalization of charm quarks compared to light quarks, while at high pT, path-length dependent effects seem to dominate. The J/ψ v2 measurements are further compared to a microscopic transport model calculation. Using a simplified extension of the quark scaling approach involving both light and charm quark flow components, it is shown that the D-meson vn measurements can be described based on those for charged pions and J/ψ flow.
Measurement of Z-boson production in p-Pb collisions at sNN−−−√ = 8.16 TeV and Pb-Pb collisions at sNN−−−√ = 5.02 TeV is reported. It is performed in the dimuon decay channel, through the detection of muons with pseudorapidity −4 < ημ < −2.5 and transverse momentum pμT > 20 GeV/c in the laboratory frame. The invariant yield and nuclear modification factor are measured for opposite-sign dimuons with invariant mass 60 < mμμ < 120 GeV/c2 and rapidity 2.5 < yμμcms < 4. They are presented as a function of rapidity and, for the Pb-Pb collisions, of centrality as well. The results are compared with theoretical calculations, both with and without nuclear modifications to the Parton Distribution Functions (PDFs). In p-Pb collisions the center-of-mass frame is boosted with respect to the laboratory frame, and the measurements cover the backward (−4.46 < yμμcms < −2.96) and forward (2.03 < yμμcms < 3.53) rapidity regions. For the p-Pb collisions, the results are consistent within experimental and theoretical uncertainties with calculations that include both free-nucleon and nuclear-modified PDFs. For the Pb-Pb collisions, a 3.4σ deviation is seen in the integrated yield between the data and calculations based on the free-nucleon PDFs, while good agreement is found once nuclear modifications are considered.
This article presents the first measurement of the interaction between charm hadrons and nucleons. The two-particle momentum correlations of pD− and ¯pD+ pairs are measured by the ALICE Collaboration in high-multiplicity pp collisions at √s=13 TeV. The data are compatible with the Coulomb-only interaction hypothesis within (1.1–1.5)σ. The level of agreement slightly improves if an attractive nucleon (N)¯D strong interaction is considered, in contrast to most model predictions which suggest an overall repulsive interaction. This measurement allows for the first time an estimation of the 68% confidence level interval for the isospin I=0 inverse scattering length of the N¯D state f−10, I=0∈[−0.4,0.9] fm−1, assuming negligible interaction for the isospin I=1 channel.
The production of prompt Λc+ baryons at midrapidity (|y|<0.5) was measured in central (0–10%) and mid-central (30–50%) Pb–Pb collisions at the center-of-mass energy per nucleon–nucleon pair √sNN=5.02 TeV with the ALICE detector. The results are more precise, more differential in centrality, and reach much lower transverse momentum (pT=1 GeV/c) with respect to previous measurements performed by the ALICE, STAR, and CMS Collaborations in nucleus–nucleus collisions, allowing for an extrapolation down to pT=0. The pT-differential Λc+/D0 ratio is enhanced with respect to the pp measurement for 4<pT<8 GeV/c by 3.7 standard deviations (σ), while the pT-integrated ratios are compatible within 1σ. The observed trend is similar to that observed in the strange sector for the Λ/KS0 ratio. Model calculations including coalescence or statistical hadronization for charm-hadron formation are compared with the data.
In quantum scattering processes between two particles, aspects characterizing the strong and Coulomb forces can be observed in kinematic distributions of the particle pairs. The sensitivity to the interaction potential reaches a maximum at low relative momentum and vanishing distance between the two particles. Ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions at the LHC provide an abundant source of many hadron species and can be employed as a measurement method of scattering parameters that is complementary to scattering experiments. This study confirms that momentum correlations of particles produced in Pb–Pb collisions at the LHC provide an accurate measurement of kaon–proton scattering parameters at low relative momentum, allowing precise access to the K−p→K−p process. This work also validates the femtoscopic measurement in ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions as an alternative to scattering experiments and a complementary tool to the study of exotic atoms with comparable precision. In this work, the first femtoscopic measurement of momentum correlations of K−p(K+p‾) and K+p(K−p‾) pairs in Pb–Pb collisions at centre-of-mass energy per nucleon pair of sNN=5.02 TeV registered by the ALICE experiment is reported. The components of the K−p complex scattering length are extracted and found to be ℜf0=−0.91±0.03(stat)−0.03+0.17(syst) and ℑf0=0.92±0.05(stat)−0.33+0.12(syst). The results are compared with chiral effective field theory predictions as well as with existing data from dedicated scattering and exotic kaonic atom experiments.
The production of prompt D0, Ds+, and Λc+ hadrons, and their ratios, Ds+/D0 and Λc+/D0, are measured in proton–proton collisions at √s=13 TeV at midrapidity (|y|<0.5) with the ALICE detector at the LHC. The measurements are performed as a function of the charm-hadron transverse momentum (pT) in intervals of charged-particle multiplicity, measured with two multiplicity estimators covering different pseudorapidity regions. While the strange to non-strange Ds+/D0 ratio indicates no significant multiplicity dependence, the baryon-to-meson pT-differential Λc+/D0 ratio shows a multiplicity-dependent enhancement, with a significance of 5.3σ for 1<pT<12 GeV/c, comparing the highest multiplicity interval with respect to the lowest one. The measurements are compared with a theoretical model that explains the multiplicity dependence by a canonical treatment of quantum charges in the statistical hadronisation approach, and with predictions from event generators that implement colour reconnection mechanisms beyond the leading colour approximation to model the hadronisation process. The Λc+/D0 ratios as a function of pT present a similar shape and magnitude as the Λ/KS0 ratios in comparable multiplicity intervals, suggesting a potential common mechanism for light- and charm-hadron formation, with analogous multiplicity dependence. The pT-integrated ratios, extrapolated down to pT=0, do not show a significant dependence on multiplicity within the uncertainties.
We present the first systematic comparison of the charged-particle pseudorapidity densities for three widely different collision systems, pp, pPb, and PbPb, at the top energy of the Large Hadron Collider (√sNN=5.02TeV) measured over a wide pseudorapidity range (−3.5<η<5), the widest possible among the four experiments at that facility. The systematic uncertainties are minimised since the measurements are recorded by the same experimental apparatus (ALICE). The distributions for pPb and PbPb collisions are determined as a function of the centrality of the collisions, while results from pp collisions are reported for inelastic events with at least one charged particle at midrapidity. The charged-particle pseudorapidity densities are, under simple and robust assumptions, transformed to charged-particle rapidity densities. This allows for the calculation and the presentation of the evolution of the width of the rapidity distributions and of a lower bound on the Bjorken energy density, as a function of the number of participants in all three collision systems. We find a decreasing width of the particle production, and roughly a smooth ten fold increase in the energy density, as the system size grows, which is consistent with a gradually higher dense phase of matter.
An excess of J/ψ yield at very low transverse momentum (pT<0.3 GeV/c), originating from coherent photoproduction, is observed in peripheral and semicentral hadronic Pb–Pb collisions at a center-of-mass energy per nucleon pair of sNN=5.02 TeV. The measurement is performed with the ALICE detector via the dimuon decay channel at forward rapidity (2.5<y<4). The nuclear modification factor at very low pT and the coherent photoproduction cross section are measured as a function of centrality down to the 10% most central collisions. These results extend the previous study at sNN=2.76 TeV, confirming the clear excess over hadronic production in the pT range 0−0.3 GeV/c and the centrality range 70–90%, and establishing an excess with a significance greater than 5σ also in the 50–70% and 30–50% centrality ranges. The results are compared with earlier measurements at sNN=2.76 TeV and with different theoretical predictions aiming at describing how coherent photoproduction occurs in hadronic interactions with nuclear overlap.
Production of K0S, Λ (Λ), Ξ±, and Ω± in jets and in the underlying event in pp and p–Pb collisions
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The production of strange hadrons (K0S, Λ, Ξ±, and Ω±), baryon-to-meson ratios (Λ/K0S, Ξ/K0S, and Ω/K0S), and baryon-to-baryon ratios (Ξ/Λ, Ω/Λ, and Ω/Ξ) associated with jets and the underlying event were measured as a function of transverse momentum (pT) in pp collisions at s√=13 TeV and p-Pb collisions at sNN−−−√=5.02 TeV with the ALICE detector at the LHC. The inclusive production of the same particle species and the corresponding ratios are also reported. The production of multi-strange hadrons, Ξ± and Ω±, and their associated particle ratios in jets and in the underlying event are measured for the first time. In both pp and p-Pb collisions, the baryon-to-meson and baryon-to-baryon yield ratios measured in jets differ from the inclusive particle production for low and intermediate hadron pT (0.6−6 GeV/c). Ratios measured in the underlying event are in turn similar to those measured for inclusive particle production. In pp collisions, the particle production in jets is compared with PYTHIA 8 predictions with three colour-reconnection implementation modes. None of them fully reproduces the data in the measured hadron pT region. The maximum deviation is observed for Ξ± and Ω±, which reaches a factor of about six. In p-Pb collisions, there is no significant event-multiplicity dependence for particle production in jets, in contrast to what is observed in the underlying event. The presented measurements provide novel constraints on hadronisation and its Monte Carlo description. In particular, they demonstrate that the fragmentation of jets alone is insufficient to describe the strange and multi-strange particle production in hadronic collisions at LHC energies.
The production yields of non-prompt Ds+ mesons, namely Ds+ mesons from beauty-hadron decays, were measured for the first time as a function of the transverse momentum (pT) at midrapidity (|y|<0.5) in central and semi-central Pb−Pb collisions at a centre-of-mass energy per nucleon pair sNN−−−√=5.02 TeV with the ALICE experiment at the LHC. The Ds+ mesons and their charge conjugates were reconstructed from the hadronic decay channel Ds+→ϕπ+, with ϕ→K−K+, in the 4<pT<36 GeV/c and 2<pT<24 GeV/c intervals for the 0−10% and 30−50% centrality classes, respectively. The measured yields of non-prompt Ds+ mesons are compared to those of prompt Ds+ and non-prompt D0 mesons by calculating the ratios of the production yields in Pb−Pb collisions and the nuclear modification factor RAA. The ratio between the RAA of non-prompt Ds+ and prompt Ds+ mesons, and that between the RAA of non-prompt Ds+ and non-prompt D0 mesons in central Pb−Pb collisions are found to be on average higher than unity in the 4<pT<12 GeV/c interval with a statistical significance of about 1.6σ and 1.7σ, respectively. The measured RAA ratios are compared with the predictions of theoretical models of heavy-quark transport in a hydrodynamically expanding QGP that incorporate hadronisation via quark recombination.
Measurement of the J/ψ polarization with respect to the event plane in Pb–Pb collisions at the LHC
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We study the polarization of inclusive J/ψ produced in Pb−Pb collisions at sNN−−−√=5.02 TeV at the LHC in the dimuon channel, via the measurement of the angular distribution of its decay products. We perform the study in the rapidity region 2.5<y<4, for three transverse momentum intervals (2<pT<4, 4<pT<6, 6<pT<10 GeV/c) and as a function of the centrality of the collision for 2<pT<6 GeV/c. For the first time, the polarization is measured with respect to the event plane of the collision, by considering the angle between the positive-charge decay muon in the J/ψ rest frame and the axis perpendicular to the event-plane vector in the laboratory system. A small transverse polarization is measured, with a significance reaching 3.9σ at low pT and for intermediate centrality values. The polarization could be connected with the behaviour of the quark−gluon plasma, formed in Pb−Pb collisions, as a rotating fluid with large vorticity, as well as with the existence of a strong magnetic field in the early stage of its formation.
This Letter reports on the first measurements of transverse momentum dependent flow angle Ψn and flow magnitude vn fluctuations, determined using new four-particle correlators. The measurements are performed for various centralities in Pb-Pb collisions at a centre-of-mass energy per nucleon pair of sNN−−−√ = 5.02 TeV with ALICE at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. Both flow angle and flow magnitude fluctuations are observed in the presented centrality ranges and are strongest in the most central collisions and for a transverse momentum pT>2 GeV/c. Comparison with theoretical models, including iEBE-VISHNU, MUSIC, and AMPT, show that the measurements exhibit unique sensitivities to the initial state of heavy-ion collisions.
The first experimental information on the strong interaction between Λ and Ξ− strange baryons is presented in this Letter. The correlation function of Λ−Ξ− and Λ¯¯¯¯−Ξ¯¯¯¯+ pairs produced in high-multiplicity proton-proton (pp) collisions at s√ = 13 TeV at the LHC is measured as a function of the relative momentum of the pair. The femtoscopy method is used to calculate the correlation function, which is then compared with theoretical expectations obtained using a meson exchange model, chiral effective field theory, and Lattice QCD calculations close to the physical point. Data support predictions of small scattering parameters while discarding versions with large ones, thus suggesting a weak Λ−Ξ− interaction. The limited statistical significance of the data does not yet allow one to constrain the effects of coupled channels like Σ−Ξ and N−Ω.
Measurements of the elliptic flow coefficient relative to the collision plane defined by the spectator neutrons v2{ΨSP} in collisions of Pb ions at center-of-mass energy per nucleon–nucleon pair sNN=2.76 TeV and Xe ions at sNN=5.44 TeV are reported. The results are presented for charged particles produced at midrapidity as a function of centrality and transverse momentum for the 5–70% and 0.2–6 GeV/c ranges, respectively. The ratio between v2{ΨSP} and the elliptic flow coefficient relative to the participant plane v2{4}, estimated using four-particle correlations, deviates by up to 20% from unity depending on centrality. This observation differs strongly from the magnitude of the corresponding eccentricity ratios predicted by the TRENTo and the elliptic power models of initial state fluctuations that are tuned to describe the participant plane anisotropies. The differences can be interpreted as a decorrelation of the neutron spectator plane and the reaction plane because of fragmentation of the remnants from the colliding nuclei, which points to an incompleteness of current models describing the initial state fluctuations. A significant transverse momentum dependence of the ratio v2{ΨSP}/v2{4} is observed in all but the most central collisions, which may help to understand whether momentum anisotropies at low and intermediate transverse momentum have a common origin in initial state fluctuations. The ratios of v2{ΨSP} and v2{4} to the corresponding initial state eccentricities for Xe–Xe and Pb–Pb collisions at similar initial entropy density show a difference of (7.0±0.9)% with an additional variation of +1.8% when including RHIC data in the TRENTo parameter extraction. These observations provide new experimental constraints for viscous effects in the hydrodynamic modeling of the expanding quark–gluon plasma produced in heavy-ion collisions at the LHC.
This letter reports measurements which characterize the underlying event associated with hard scatterings at mid-pseudorapidity (|η|<0.8) in pp, p−Pb and Pb−Pb collisions at centre-of-mass energy per nucleon pair, sNN−−−√=5.02 TeV. The measurements are performed with ALICE at the LHC. Different multiplicity classes are defined based on the event activity measured at forward rapidities. The hard scatterings are identified by the leading particle defined as the charged particle with the largest transverse momentum (pT) in the collision and having 8<pT<15 GeV/c. The pT spectra of associated particles (0.5≤pT<6 GeV/c) are measured in different azimuthal regions defined with respect to the leading particle direction: toward, transverse, and away. The associated charged particle yields in the transverse region are subtracted from those of the away and toward regions. The remaining jet-like yields are reported as a function of the multiplicity measured in the transverse region. The measurements show a suppression of the jet-like yield in the away region and an enhancement of high-pT associated particles in the toward region in central Pb−Pb collisions, as compared to minimum-bias pp collisions. These observations are consistent with previous measurements that used two-particle correlations, and with an interpretation in terms of parton energy loss in a high-density quark gluon plasma. These yield modifications vanish in peripheral Pb−Pb collisions and are not observed in either high-multiplicity pp or p−Pb collisions.
This article presents new measurements of the fragmentation properties of jets in both proton-proton (pp) and heavy-ion collisions with the ALICE experiment at the LHC. We report distributions of the fraction zr of transverse momentum carried by subjets of radius r within jets of radius R. Charged-particle jets are reconstructed at midrapidity using the anti-kT algorithm with jet radius R=0.4, and subjets are reconstructed by reclustering the jet constituents using the anti-kT algorithm with radii r=0.1 and r=0.2. In pp collisions, we measure both the inclusive and leading subjet distributions. We compare these measurements to perturbative calculations at next-to-leading logarithmic accuracy, which suggest a large impact of threshold resummation and hadronization effects on the zr distribution. In heavy-ion collisions, we measure the leading subjet distributions, which allow access to a region of harder jet fragmentation than has been probed by previous measurements of jet quenching via hadron fragmentation distributions. The zr distributions enable extraction of the parton-to-subjet fragmentation function and allow for tests of the universality of jet fragmentation functions in the quark-gluon plasma (QGP). We find no significant modification of zr distributions in Pb-Pb compared to pp collisions. However, the distributions are also consistent with a hardening trend for zr<0.95, as predicted by several jet quenching models. As zr→1 our results indicate that any such hardening effects cease, exposing qualitatively new possibilities to disentangle competing jet quenching mechanisms. By comparing our results to theoretical calculations based on an independent extraction of the parton-to-jet fragmentation function, we find consistency with the universality of jet fragmentation and no indication of factorization breaking in the QGP.
This article presents measurements of the groomed jet radius and momentum splitting fraction in pp collisions at s√=5.02 TeV with the ALICE detector at the Large Hadron Collider. Inclusive charged-particle jets are reconstructed at midrapidity using the anti-kT algorithm for transverse momentum 60<pchjetT<80 GeV/c. We report results using two different grooming algorithms: soft drop and, for the first time, dynamical grooming. For each grooming algorithm, a variety of grooming settings are used in order to explore the impact of collinear radiation on these jet substructure observables. These results are compared to perturbative calculations that include resummation of large logarithms at all orders in the strong coupling constant. We find good agreement of the theoretical predictions with the data for all grooming settings considered.
The first measurement of event-by-event antideuteron number fluctuations in high energy heavy-ion collisions is presented. The measurements are carried out at midrapidity (|η|<0.8) as a function of collision centrality in Pb−Pb collisions at sNN−−−√=5.02 TeV using the ALICE detector. A significant negative correlation between the produced antiprotons and antideuterons is observed in all collision centralities. The results are compared with a state-of-the-art coalescence calculation. While it describes the ratio of higher order cumulants of the antideuteron multiplicity distribution, it fails to describe quantitatively the magnitude of the correlation between antiproton and antideuteron production. On the other hand, thermal-statistical model calculations describe all the measured observables within uncertainties only for correlation volumes that are different with respect to those describing proton yields and a similar measurement of net-proton number fluctuations.
The transverse-momentum (pT) spectra and coalescence parameters B2 of (anti)deuterons are measured in p-p collisions at √s=13 TeV for the first time in and out of jets. In this measurement, the direction of the leading particle with the highest pT in the event (p lead T>5 GeV/c) is used as an approximation for the jet axis. The event is consequently divided into three azimuthal regions, and the jet signal is obtained as the difference between the toward region, that contains jet fragmentation products in addition to the underlying event (UE), and the transverse region, which is dominated by the UE. The coalescence parameter in the jet is found to be approximately a factor of 10 larger than that in the underlying event. This experimental observation is consistent with the coalescence picture and can be attributed to the smaller average phase-space distance between nucleons in the jet cone as compared with the underlying event. The results presented in this Letter are compared to predictions from a simple nucleon coalescence model, where the phase-space distributions of nucleons are generated using pythia8 with the Monash 2013 tuning, and to predictions from a deuteron production model based on ordinary nuclear reactions with parametrized energy-dependent cross sections tuned on data. The latter model is implemented in pythia8.3. Both models reproduce the observed large difference between in-jet and out-of-jet coalescence parameters, although the almost flat trend of the BJet2 is not reproduced by the models, which instead give a decreasing trend.
In this Letter, the first measurement of the inelastic cross section for antitriton−nucleus interactions is reported, covering the momentum range of 0.8≤p<2.4 GeV/c. The measurement is carried out using data recorded with the ALICE detector in pp and Pb−Pb collisions at a centre-of-mass energy per nucleon of 13 TeV and 5.02 TeV, respectively. The detector material serves as an absorber for antitriton nuclei. The raw yield of (anti)triton nuclei measured with the ALICE apparatus is compared to the results from detailed ALICE simulations based on the GEANT4 toolkit for the propagation of (anti)particles through matter, allowing one to quantify the inelastic interaction probability in the detector material. This analysis complements the measurement of the inelastic cross section of antinuclei up to A=3 carried out by the ALICE Collaboration, and demonstrates the feasibility of the study of the isospin dependence of inelastic interaction cross section with the analysis techniques presented in this Letter.
Λ+c production and baryon-to-meson ratios in pp and p–Pb collisions at √sNN = 5.02 TeV at the LHC
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The prompt production of the charm baryon Λ+c and the Λ+c/D0 production ratios were measured at midrapidity with the ALICE detector in pp and p-Pb collisions at sNN−−−√=5.02TeV. These new measurements show a clear decrease of the Λ+c/D0 ratio with increasing transverse momentum (pT) in both collision systems in the range 2<pT<12 GeV/c, exhibiting similarities with the light-flavour baryon-to-meson ratios p/π and Λ/K0S. At low pT, predictions that include additional colour-reconnection mechanisms beyond the leading-colour approximation; assume the existence of additional higher-mass charm-baryon states; or include hadronisation via coalescence can describe the data, while predictions driven by charm-quark fragmentation processes measured in e+e− and e−p collisions significantly underestimate the data. The results presented in this letter provide significant evidence that the established assumption of universality (colliding-system independence) of parton-to-hadron fragmentation is not sufficient to describe charm-baryon production in hadronic collisions at LHC energies.
The production cross section of prompt Λ+c charm baryons was measured with the ALICE detector at the LHC at midrapidity in proton-proton (pp) and proton-lead (p-Pb) collisions at a centre-of-mass energy per nucleon pair of sNN−−−√=5.02 TeV. The Λ+c and Λ¯¯¯¯−c baryons were reconstructed in the hadronic decay channels Λ+c→pK−π+ and Λ+c→pK0S and respective charge conjugates. The measured differential cross sections as a function of transverse momentum (pT) and the pT-integrated Λ+c production cross section in pp and in p-Pb collisions are presented. The Λ+c nuclear modification factor (RpPb), calculated from the cross sections in pp and in p-Pb collisions, is presented and compared with the RpPb of D mesons. The Λ+c/D0 ratio is also presented and compared with the light-flavour baryon-to-meson ratios p/π and Λ/K0S, and measurements from other LHC experiments. The results are compared to predictions from model calculations and Monte Carlo event generators.
Measurements of the production of electrons from heavy-flavour hadron decays in pp collisions at s√=13 TeV at midrapidity with the ALICE detector are presented down to a transverse momentum (pT) of 0.2 GeV/c and up to pT=35 GeV/c, which is the largest momentum range probed for inclusive electron measurements in ALICE. In p−Pb collisions, the production cross section and the nuclear modification factor of electrons from heavy-flavour hadron decays are measured in the pT range 0.5<pT<26 GeV/c at sNN−−−√=8.16 TeV. The nuclear modification factor is found to be consistent with unity within the statistical and systematic uncertainties. In both collision systems, first measurements of the yields of electrons from heavy-flavour hadron decays in different multiplicity intervals normalised to the multiplicity-integrated yield (self-normalised yield) at midrapidity are reported as a function of the self-normalised charged-particle multiplicity estimated at midrapidity. The self-normalised yields in pp and p−Pb collisions grow faster than linear with the self-normalised multiplicity. A strong pT dependence is observed in pp collisions, where the yield of high-pT electrons increases faster as a function of multiplicity than the one of low-pT electrons. The measurement in p−Pb collisions shows no pT dependence within uncertainties. The self-normalised yields in pp and p−Pb collisions are compared with measurements of other heavy-flavour, light-flavour, and strange particles, and with Monte Carlo simulations.
The correlations between different moments of two flow amplitudes, extracted with the recently developed asymmetric cumulants, are measured in Pb-Pb collisions at √sNN = 5.02 TeV recorded by the ALICE detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. The magnitudes of the measured observables show a dependence on the different moments as well as on the collision centrality, indicating the presence of nonlinear response in all even moments up to the eighth. Furthermore, the higher-order asymmetric cumulants show different signatures than the symmetric and lower-order asymmetric cumulants. Comparisons with state-of-the-art event generators using two different parametrizations obtained from Bayesian optimization show differences between data and simulations in many of the studied observables, indicating a need for further tuning of the models behind those event generators. These results provide new and independent constraints on the initial conditions and transport properties of the system created in heavy-ion collisions.
The production of π±, K±, and (p¯¯¯)p is measured in pp collisions at s√=13 TeV in different topological regions. Particle transverse momentum (pT) spectra are measured in the ``toward'', ``transverse'', and ``away'' angular regions defined with respect to the direction of the leading particle in the event. While the toward and away regions contain the fragmentation products of the near-side and away-side jets, respectively, the transverse region is dominated by particles from the Underlying Event (UE). The relative transverse activity classifier, RT=NT/⟨NT⟩, is used to group events according to their UE activity, where NT is the measured charged-particle multiplicity per event in the transverse region and ⟨NT⟩ is the mean value over all the analysed events. The first measurements of identified particle pT spectra as a function of RT in the three topological regions are reported. The yield of high transverse momentum particles relative to the RT-integrated measurement decreases with increasing RT in both the toward and away regions, indicating that the softer UE dominates particle production as RT increases and validating that RT can be used to control the magnitude of the UE. Conversely, the spectral shapes in the transverse region harden significantly with increasing RT. This hardening follows a mass ordering, being more significant for heavier particles. The pT-differential particle ratios (p+p¯¯¯)/(π++π−) and (K++K−)/(π++π−) in the low UE limit (RT→0) approach expectations from Monte Carlo generators such as PYTHIA 8 with Monash 2013 tune and EPOS LHC, where the jet-fragmentation models have been tuned to reproduce e+e− results.
This article reports measurements of the angle between differently defined jet axes in pp collisions at s√=5.02 TeV carried out by the ALICE Collaboration. Charged particles at midrapidity are clustered into jets with resolution parameters R=0.2 and 0.4. The jet axis, before and after Soft Drop grooming, is compared to the jet axis from the Winner-Takes-All (WTA) recombination scheme. The angle between these axes, ΔRaxis, probes a wide phase space of the jet formation and evolution, ranging from the initial high-momentum-transfer scattering to the hadronization process. The ΔRaxis observable is presented for 20<pchjetT<100 GeV/c, and compared to predictions from the PYTHIA 8 and Herwig 7 event generators. The distributions can also be calculated analytically with a leading hadronization correction related to the non-perturbative component of the Collins−Soper−Sterman (CSS) evolution kernel. Comparisons to analytical predictions at next-to-leading-logarithmic accuracy with leading hadronization correction implemented from experimental extractions of the CSS kernel in Drell−Yan measurements are presented. The analytical predictions describe the measured data within 20% in the perturbative regime, with surprising agreement in the non-perturbative regime as well. These results are compatible with the universality of the CSS kernel in the context of jet substructure.
In ultraperipheral collisions (UPCs) of relativistic nuclei without overlap of nuclear densities, the two nuclei are excited by the Lorentz-contracted Coulomb fields of their collision partners. In these UPCs, the typical nuclear excitation energy is below a few tens of MeV, and a small number of nucleons are emitted in electromagnetic dissociation (EMD) of primary nuclei, in contrast to complete nuclear fragmentation in hadronic interactions. The cross sections of emission of given numbers of neutrons in UPCs of 208Pb nuclei at sNN−−−√=5.02 TeV were measured with the neutron zero degree calorimeters (ZDCs) of the ALICE detector at the LHC, exploiting a similar technique to that used in previous studies performed at sNN−−−√=2.76 TeV. In addition, the cross sections for the exclusive emission of one, two, three, four, and five forward neutrons in the EMD, not accompanied by the emission of forward protons, and thus mostly corresponding to the production of 207,206,205,204,203Pb, respectively, were measured for the first time. The predictions from the available models describe the measured cross sections well. These cross sections can be used for evaluating the impact of secondary nuclei on the LHC components, in particular, on superconducting magnets, and also provide useful input for the design of the Future Circular Collider (FCC-hh).
Measurements of the production cross sections of prompt D0, D+, D∗+, D+s, Λ+c, and Ξ+c charm hadrons at midrapidity in proton−proton collisions at s√=13 TeV with the ALICE detector are presented. The D-meson cross sections as a function of transverse momentum (pT) are provided with improved precision and granularity. The ratios of pT-differential meson production cross sections based on this publication and on measurements at different rapidity and collision energy provide a constraint on gluon parton distribution functions at low values of Bjorken-x (10−5−10−4). The measurements of Λ+c (Ξ+c) baryon production extend the measured pT intervals down to pT=0(3)~GeV/c. These measurements are used to determine the charm-quark fragmentation fractions and the cc¯¯ production cross section at midrapidity (|y|<0.5) based on the sum of the cross sections of the weakly-decaying ground-state charm hadrons D0, D+, D+s, Λ+c, Ξ0c and, for the first time, Ξ+c, and of the strongly-decaying J/psi mesons. The first measurements of Ξ+c and Σ0,++c fragmentation fractions at midrapidity are also reported. A significantly larger fraction of charm quarks hadronising to baryons is found compared to e+e− and ep collisions. The cc¯¯ production cross section at midrapidity is found to be at the upper bound of state-of-the-art perturbative QCD calculations.
Correlations in azimuthal angle extending over a long range in pseudorapidity between particles, usually called the "ridge" phenomenon, were discovered in heavy-ion collisions, and later found in pp and p−Pb collisions. In large systems, they are thought to arise from the expansion (collective flow) of the produced particles. Extending these measurements over a wider range in pseudorapidity and final-state particle multiplicity is important to understand better the origin of these long-range correlations in small-collision systems. In this Letter, measurements of the long-range correlations in p−Pb collisions at sNN−−−√=5.02 TeV are extended to a pseudorapidity gap of Δη∼8 between particles using the ALICE, forward multiplicity detectors. After suppressing non-flow correlations, e.g., from jet and resonance decays, the ridge structure is observed to persist up to a very large gap of Δη∼8 for the first time in p−Pb collisions. This shows that the collective flow-like correlations extend over an extensive pseudorapidity range also in small-collision systems such as p−Pb collisions. The pseudorapidity dependence of the second-order anisotropic flow coefficient, v2({\eta}), is extracted from the long-range correlations. The v2(η) results are presented for a wide pseudorapidity range of −3.1<η<4.8 in various centrality classes in p−Pb collisions. To gain a comprehensive understanding of the source of anisotropic flow in small-collision systems, the v2(η) measurements are compared to hydrodynamic and transport model calculations. The comparison suggests that the final-state interactions play a dominant role in developing the anisotropic flow in small-collision systems.
The elliptic flow (v2) of D0 mesons from beauty-hadron decays (non-prompt D0) was measured in midcentral (30-50%) Pb-Pb collisions at a centre-of-mass energy per nucleon pair sNN−−−√ = 5.02 TeV with the ALICE detector at the LHC. The D0 mesons were reconstructed at midrapidity (|y|<0.8) from their hadronic decay D0→K−π+, in the transverse momentum interval 2<pT<12 GeV/c. The result indicates a positive v2 for non-prompt D0 mesons with a significance of 2.7σ. The non-prompt D0-meson v2 is lower than that of prompt non-strange D mesons with 3.2σ significance in 2<pT<8 GeV/c, and compatible with the v2 of beauty-decay electrons. Theoretical calculations of beauty-quark transport in a hydrodynamically expanding medium describe the measurement within uncertainties.
Measurements of charged-particle production in pp, p−Pb, and Pb−Pb collisions in the toward, away, and transverse regions with the ALICE detector are discussed. These regions are defined event-by-event relative to the azimuthal direction of the charged trigger particle, which is the reconstructed particle with the largest transverse momentum (ptrigT) in the range 8<ptrigT<15 GeV/c. The toward and away regions contain the primary and recoil jets, respectively; both regions are accompanied by the underlying event (UE). In contrast, the transverse region perpendicular to the direction of the trigger particle is dominated by the so-called UE dynamics, and includes also contributions from initial- and final-state radiation. The relative transverse activity classifier, RT=NTch/⟨NTch⟩, is used to group events according to their UE activity, where NTch is the charged-particle multiplicity per event in the transverse region and ⟨NTch⟩ is the mean value over the whole analysed sample. The energy dependence of the RT distributions in pp collisions at s√=2.76, 5.02, 7, and 13 TeV is reported, exploring the Koba-Nielsen-Olesen (KNO) scaling properties of the multiplicity distributions. The first measurements of charged-particle pT spectra as a function of RT in the three azimuthal regions in pp, p−Pb, and Pb−Pb collisions at sNN−−−√=5.02 TeV are also reported. Data are compared with predictions obtained from the event generators PYTHIA 8 and EPOS LHC. This set of measurements is expected to contribute to the understanding of the origin of collective-like effects in small collision systems (pp and p−Pb).
The Chiral Magnetic Wave (CMW) phenomenon is essential to provide insights into the strong interaction in QCD, the properties of the quark-gluon plasma, and the topological characteristics of the early universe, offering a deeper understanding of fundamental physics in high-energy collisions. Measurements of the charge-dependent anisotropic flow coefficients are studied in Pb-Pb collisions at center-of-mass energy per nucleon-nucleon collision sNN−−−√= 5.02 TeV to probe the CMW. In particular, the slope of the normalized difference in elliptic (v2) and triangular (v3) flow coefficients of positively and negatively charged particles as a function of their event-wise normalized number difference, is reported for inclusive and identified particles. The slope rNorm3 is found to be larger than zero and to have a magnitude similar to rNorm2, thus pointing to a large background contribution for these measurements. Furthermore, rNorm2 can be described by a blast wave model calculation that incorporates local charge conservation. In addition, using the event shape engineering technique yields a fraction of CMW (fCMW) contribution to this measurement which is compatible with zero. This measurement provides the very first upper limit for fCMW, and in the 10-60% centrality interval it is found to be 26% (38%) at 95% (99.7%) confidence level.
The STAR Collaboration at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider reports the first measurement of inclusive jet production in peripheral and central Au+Au collisions at √𝑠𝑁𝑁=200 GeV. Jets are reconstructed with the anti-𝑘𝑇 algorithm using charged tracks with pseudorapidity |𝜂|<1.0 and transverse momentum 0.2<𝑝ch
𝑇,jet<30 GeV/𝑐, with jet resolution parameter 𝑅=0.2, 0.3, and 0.4. The large background yield uncorrelated with the jet signal is observed to be dominated by statistical phase space, consistent with a previous coincidence measurement. This background is suppressed by requiring a high-transverse-momentum (high-𝑝𝑇) leading hadron in accepted jet candidates. The bias imposed by this requirement is assessed, and the 𝑝𝑇 region in which the bias is small is identified. Inclusive charged-particle jet distributions are reported in peripheral and central Au+Au collisions for 5<𝑝ch
𝑇,jet<25 GeV/𝑐 and 5<𝑝ch
𝑇,jet<30 GeV/𝑐, respectively. The charged-particle jet inclusive yield is suppressed for central Au+Au collisions, compared to both the peripheral Au+Au yield from this measurement and to the 𝑝𝑝 yield calculated using the PYTHIA event generator. The magnitude of the suppression is consistent with that of inclusive hadron production at high 𝑝𝑇 and that of semi-inclusive recoil jet yield when expressed in terms of energy loss due to medium-induced energy transport. Comparison of inclusive charged-particle jet yields for different values of 𝑅 exhibits no significant evidence for medium-induced broadening of the transverse jet profile for 𝑅 <0.4 in central Au+Au collisions. The measured distributions are consistent with theoretical model calculations that incorporate jet quenching.
We report measurements of the longitudinal double-spin asymmetry, ALL, for inclusive jet and dijet production in polarized proton-proton collisions at midrapidity and center-of-mass energy s√ = 510 GeV, using the high luminosity data sample collected by the STAR experiment in 2013. These measurements complement and improve the precision of previous STAR measurements at the same center-of-mass energy that probe the polarized gluon distribution function at partonic momentum fraction 0.015 ≲x≲ 0.25. The dijet asymmetries are separated into four jet-pair topologies, which provide further constraints on the x dependence of the polarized gluon distribution function. These measurements are in agreement with previous STAR measurements and with predictions from current next-to-leading order global analyses. They provide more precise data at low dijet invariant mass that will better constraint the shape of the polarized gluon distribution function of the proton.
We present measurements of the differential cross sections of inclusive J/ψ meson production as a function of transverse momentum (pJ/ψT) using the μ+μ− and e+e− decay channels in proton+proton collisions at center-of-mass energies of 510 and 500 GeV, respectively, recorded by the STAR detector at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider. The measurement from the μ+μ− channel is for 0 <pJ/ψT< 9 GeV/c and rapidity range |yJ/ψ|< 0.4, and that from the e+e− channel is for 4 <pJ/ψT< 20 GeV/c and |yJ/ψ|< 1.0. The ψ(2S) to J/ψ ratio is also measured for 4 <pmesonT< 12 GeV/c through the e+e− decay channel. Model calculations, which incorporate different approaches toward the J/ψ production mechanism, are compared with experimental results and show reasonable agreement within uncertainties.
We report on the first measurements of J/ψ production at very low transverse momentum (pT< 0.2 GeV/c) in hadronic Au+Au collisions at √sNN = 200 GeV and U+U collisions at √sNN = 193 GeV. Remarkably, the inferred nuclear modification factor of J/ψ at mid-rapidity in Au+Au (U+U) collisions reaches about 24 (52) for pT< 0.05 GeV/c in the 60-80% collision centrality class. This noteworthy enhancement cannot be explained by hadronic production accompanied by cold and hot medium effects. In addition, the dN/dt distribution of J/ψ for the very low pT range is presented for the first time. The distribution is consistent with that expected from the Au nucleus and shows a hint of interference. Comparison of the measurements to theoretical calculations of coherent production shows that the excess yield can be described reasonably well and reveals a partial disruption of coherent production in semi-central collisions, perhaps due to the violent hadronic interactions. Incorporating theoretical calculations, the results strongly suggest that the dramatic enhancement of J/ψ yield observed at extremely low pT originates from coherent photon-nucleus interactions. In particular, coherently produced J/ψ's in violent hadronic collisions may provide a novel probe of the quark-gluon-plasma.
We report new STAR measurements of the single-spin asymmetries 𝐴𝐿 for 𝑊+ and 𝑊− bosons produced in polarized proton-proton collisions at √𝑠=510 GeV as a function of the decay-positron and decay-electron pseudorapidity. The data were obtained in 2013 and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 250 pb−1. The results are combined with previous results obtained with 86 pb−1. A comparison with theoretical expectations based on polarized lepton-nucleon deep-inelastic scattering and prior polarized proton-proton data suggests a difference between the ¯𝑢 and ¯𝑑 quark helicity distributions for 0.05<𝑥<0.25. In addition, we report new results for the double-spin asymmetries 𝐴𝐿𝐿 for 𝑊±, as well as 𝐴𝐿 for 𝑍/𝛾* production and subsequent decay into electron-positron pairs.
The production of K∗(892)± meson resonance is measured at midrapidity (|y|<0.5) in Pb−Pb collisions at √sNN=5.02 TeV using the ALICE detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. The resonance is reconstructed via its hadronic decay channel K∗(892)±→K0Sπ±. The transverse momentum distributions are obtained for various centrality intervals in the pT range of 0.4−16 GeV/c . Measurements of integrated yields, mean transverse momenta, and particle yield ratios are reported and found to be consistent with previous ALICE measurements for K∗(892)0 within uncertainties. The pT-integrated yield ratio 2K∗(892)±/(K++K−) in central Pb−Pb collisions shows a significant suppression at a level of 9.3σ relative to pp collisions. Thermal model calculations result in an overprediction of the particle yield ratio. Although both hadron resonance gas in partial chemical equilibrium (HRG-PCE) and music + smash simulations consider the hadronic phase, only HRG-PCE accurately represents the measurements, whereas music + smash simulations tend to overpredict the particle yield ratio. These observations, along with the kinetic freeze-out temperatures extracted from the yields measured for light-flavored hadrons using the HRG-PCE model, indicate a finite hadronic phase lifetime, which decreases with increasing collision centrality percentile. The pT-differential yield ratios 2K∗(892)±/(K++K−) and 2K∗(892)±/(π++π−) are presented and compared with measurements in pp collisions at √s=5.02 TeV. Both pa rticle ratios are found to be suppressed by up to a factor of five at pT<2.0 GeV/c in central Pb−Pb collisions and are qualitatively consistent with expectations for rescattering effects in the hadronic phase. The nuclear modification factor (RAA) shows a smooth evolution with centrality and is found to be below unity at pT>8 GeV/c, consistent with measurements for other light-flavored hadrons. The smallest values are observed in most central collisions, indicating larger energy loss of partons traversing the dense medium.
The production of prompt +c baryons has been measured at midrapidity in the transverse momentum interval 0 < pT < 1 GeV/c for the first time, in pp and p–Pb collisions at a center-of-mass energy per nucleon-nucleon collision √sNN = 5.02 TeV. The measurement was performed in the decay channel +c → pK0S by applying new decay reconstruction techniques using a Kalman-Filter vertexing algorithm and adopting a machine-learning approach for the candidate selection. The pT -integrated +c production cross sections in both collision systems were determined and used along with the measured yields in Pb–Pb collisions to compute the pT -integrated nuclear modification factors RpPb and RAA of +c baryons, which are compared to model calculations that consider nuclear modification of the parton distribution functions. The +c /D0 baryon-to-meson yield ratio is reported for pp and p–Pb collisions. Comparisons with models that include modified hadronization processes are presented, and the implications of the results on the understanding of charm hadronization in hadronic collisions are discussed. A significant (3.7σ) modification of the mean transverse momentum of + c baryons is seen in p–Pb collisions with respect to pp collisions, while the pT -integrated +c /D0 yield ratio was found to be consistent between the two collision systems within the uncertainties.
The inclusive production of the charm-strange baryon Ω0c is measured for the first time via its semileptonic decay into Ω−e+νe at midrapidity (|y| < 0.8) in proton–proton (pp) collisions at the centre-of-mass energy √s = 13 TeV with the ALICE detector at the LHC. The transverse momentum (pT) differential cross section multiplied by the branching ratio is presented in the interval 2 < pT < 12 GeV/c. The branching-fraction ratio BR(Ω0c → Ω−e+νe)/BR(Ω0c → Ω−π+) is measured to be 1.12 ± 0.22 (stat.) ± 0.27 (syst.). Comparisons with other experimental measurements, as well as with theoretical calculations, are presented.
The knowledge of the material budget with a high precision is fundamental for measurements of direct photon production using the photon conversion method due to its direct impact on the total systematic uncertainty. Moreover, it influences many aspects of the charged-particle reconstruction performance. In this article, two procedures to determine data-driven corrections to the material-budget description in ALICE simulation software are developed. One is based on the precise knowledge of the gas composition in the Time Projection Chamber. The other is based on the robustness of the ratio between the produced number of photons and charged particles, to a large extent due to the approximate isospin symmetry in the number of produced neutral and charged pions. Both methods are applied to ALICE data allowing for a reduction of the overall material budget systematic uncertainty from 4.5% down to 2.5%. Using these methods, a locally correct material budget is also achieved. The two proposed methods are generic and can be applied to any experiment in a similar fashion.
Long- and short-range correlations for pairs of charged particles are studied via two-particle angular correlations in pp collisions at √sNN = 13 TeV and p–Pb collisions at √s = 5.02 TeV. The correlation functions are measured as a function of relative azimuthal angle ∆φ and pseudorapidity separation ∆η for pairs of primary charged particles within the pseudorapidity interval |η| < 0.9 and the transverse-momentum interval 1 < pT < 4 GeV/c. Flow coefficients are extracted for the long-range correlations (1.6 < |∆η| < 1.8) in various high-multiplicity event classes using the low-multiplicity template fit method. The method is used to subtract the enhanced yield of away-side jet fragments in high-multiplicity events. These results show decreasing flow signals toward lower multiplicity events. Furthermore, the flow coefficients for events with hard probes, such as jets or leading particles, do not exhibit any significant changes compared to those obtained from high-multiplicity events without any specific event selection criteria. The results are compared with hydrodynamic-model calculations, and it is found that a better understanding of the initial conditions is necessary to describe the results, particularly for low-multiplicity events.
The differential cross section for 𝑍0 production, measured as a function of the boson’s transverse momentum (𝑝T), provides important constraints on the evolution of the transverse momentum dependent parton distribution functions (TMDs). The transverse single spin asymmetry (TSSA) of the 𝑍0 is sensitive to one of the polarized TMDs, the Sivers function, which is predicted to have the opposite sign in 𝑝 + 𝑝 → 𝑊 ∕𝑍 + 𝑋 from that which enters in semi-inclusive deep inelastic scattering. In this Letter, the STAR Collaboration reports the first measurement of the 𝑍0∕𝛾∗ differential cross section as a function of its 𝑝T in 𝑝+𝑝 collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 510 GeV, together with the 𝑍0∕𝛾∗ total cross section. We also report the measurement of 𝑍0∕𝛾∗ TSSA in transversely polarized 𝑝+𝑝 collisions at 510 GeV.