1. |
- Abelev, B., et al.
(author)
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Technical Design Report for the Upgrade of the ALICE Inner Tracking System
- 2014
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In: Journal of Physics G: Nuclear and Particle Physics. - : IOP Publishing. - 0954-3899 .- 1361-6471. ; 41:8
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- LICE (A Large Ion Collider Experiment) is studying the physics of strongly interacting matter, and in particular the properties of the Quark–Gluon Plasma (QGP), using proton–proton, proton–nucleus and nucleus–nucleus collisions at the CERN LHC (Large Hadron Collider). The ALICE Collaboration is preparing a major upgrade of the experimental apparatus, planned for installation in the second long LHC shutdown in the years 2018–2019. A key element of the ALICE upgrade is the construction of a new, ultra-light, high-resolution Inner Tracking System (ITS) based on monolithic CMOS pixel detectors. The primary focus of the ITS upgrade is on improving the performance for detection of heavy-flavour hadrons, and of thermal photons and low-mass di-electrons emitted by the QGP. With respect to the current detector, the new Inner Tracking System will significantly enhance the determination of the distance of closest approach to the primary vertex, the tracking efficiency at low transverse momenta, and the read-out rate capabilities. This will be obtained by seven concentric detector layers based on a 50 μm thick CMOS pixel sensor with a pixel pitch of about 30×30 μm2. This document, submitted to the LHCC (LHC experiments Committee) in September 2013, presents the design goals, a summary of the R&D activities, with focus on the technical implementation of the main detector components, and the projected detector and physics performance.
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2. |
- Abelev, B., et al.
(author)
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Azimuthal anisotropy of D-meson production in Pb-Pb collisions at root s(NN)=2.76 TeV
- 2014
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In: Physical Review C (Nuclear Physics). - 0556-2813. ; 90:3
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The production of the prompt charmed mesonsD(0), D+, andD(*+) relative to the reaction plane was measured in Pb-Pb collisions at a center-of-mass energy per nucleon-nucleon collision of root s(NN) = 2.76 TeV with the ALICE detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. D mesons were reconstructed via their hadronic decays at central rapidity in the transverse-momentum (pT) interval 2-16 GeV/c. The azimuthal anisotropy is quantified in terms of the second coefficient v(2) in a Fourier expansion of the D-meson azimuthal distribution and in terms of the nuclear modification factor R-AA, measured in the direction of the reaction plane and orthogonal to it. The v(2) coefficient was measured with three different methods and in three centrality classes in the interval 0%-50%. A positive v(2) is observed in midcentral collisions (30%-50% centrality class), with a mean value of 0.204(-0.036)(+0.099) (tot.unc.) in the interval 2 < pT < 6 GeV/c, which decreases towards more central collisions (10%-30% and 0%-10% classes). The positive v(2) is also reflected in the nuclear modification factor, which shows a stronger suppression in the direction orthogonal to the reaction plane formidcentral collisions. The measurements are compared to theoretical calculations of charm-quark transport and energy loss in high-density strongly interacting matter at high temperature. The models that include substantial elastic interactions with an expanding medium provide a good description of the observed anisotropy. However, they are challenged to simultaneously describe the strong suppression of high-pT yield of D mesons in central collisions and their azimuthal anisotropy in noncentral collisions.
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3. |
- Abelev, B., et al.
(author)
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D Meson Elliptic Flow in Noncentral Pb-Pb Collisions at root(S)(NN)=2.76 TeV
- 2013
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In: Physical Review Letters. - 1079-7114. ; 111:10
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Azimuthally anisotropic distributions of D-0, D+, and D*+ mesons were studied in the central rapidity region (vertical bar y vertical bar < 0.8) in Pb-Pb collisions at a center-of-mass energy root(S)(NN) = 2.76 TeV per nucleon-nucleon collision, with the ALICE detector at the LHC. The second Fourier coefficient upsilon(2) (commonly denoted elliptic flow) was measured in the centrality class 30%-50% as a function of the D meson transverse momentum p(T), in the range 2-16 GeV/c. The measured upsilon(2) of D mesons is comparable in magnitude to that of light-flavor hadrons. It is positive in the range 2 < p(T) < 6 GeV/c with 5.7 sigma significance, based on the combination of statistical and systematic uncertainties.
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4. |
- Abelev, B, et al.
(author)
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Directed Flow of Charged Particles at Midrapidity Relative to the Spectator Plane in Pb-Pb Collisions at sqrt[s_{NN}]=2.76 TeV.
- 2013
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In: Physical Review Letters. - 1079-7114. ; 111:23
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The directed flow of charged particles at midrapidity is measured in Pb-Pb collisions at sqrt[s_{NN}]=2.76 TeV relative to the collision symmetry plane defined by the spectator nucleons. A negative slope of the rapidity-odd directed flow component with approximately 3 times smaller magnitude than found at the highest RHIC energy is observed. This suggests a smaller longitudinal tilt of the initial system and disfavors the strong fireball rotation predicted for the LHC energies. The rapidity-even directed flow component is measured for the first time with spectators and found to be independent of pseudorapidity with a sign change at transverse momenta p_{T} between 1.2 and 1.7 GeV/c. Combined with the observation of a vanishing rapidity-even p_{T} shift along the spectator deflection this is strong evidence for dipolelike initial density fluctuations in the overlap zone of the nuclei. Similar trends in the rapidity-even directed flow and the estimate from two-particle correlations at midrapidity, which is larger by about a factor of 40, indicate a weak correlation between fluctuating participant and spectator symmetry planes. These observations open new possibilities for investigation of the initial conditions in heavy-ion collisions with spectator nucleons.
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5. |
- Abelev, B., et al.
(author)
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Energy dependence of the transverse momentum distributions of charged particles in pp collisions measured by ALICE
- 2013
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In: European Physical Journal C. Particles and Fields. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1434-6044. ; 73:12
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Differential cross sections of charged particles in inelastic pp collisions as a function of pT have been measured at root s = 0.9, 2.76 and 7 TeV at the LHC. The pT spectra are compared to NLO-pQCD calculations. Though the differential cross section for an individual root s cannot be described by NLO-pQCD, the relative increase of cross section with root s is in agreement with NLO-pQCD. Based on these measurements and observations, procedures are discussed to construct pp reference spectra at root s = 2.76 and 5.02 TeV up to pT = 50 GeV/c as required for the calculation of the nuclear modification factor in nucleus-nucleus and proton-nucleus collisions.
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6. |
- Abelev, B., et al.
(author)
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Event-by-event mean p(T) fluctuations in pp and Pb-Pb collisions at the LHC
- 2014
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In: European Physical Journal C. Particles and Fields. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1434-6044. ; 74:10
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Event-by-event fluctuations of the mean transverse momentum of charged particles produced in pp collisions at root s = 0.9, 2.76 and 7 TeV, and Pb-Pb collisions at root S-NN = 2.76 TeV are studied as a function of the charged-particle multiplicity using the ALICE detector at the LHC. Dynamical fluctuations indicative of correlated particle emission are observed in all systems. The results in pp collisions show little dependence on collision energy. The Monte Carlo event generators PYTHIA and PHOJET are in qualitative agreement with the data. Peripheral Pb-Pb data exhibit a similar-multiplicity dependence as that observed in pp. In central Pb-Pb, the results deviate from this trend, featuring a significant reduction of the fluctuation strength. The results in Pb-Pb are in qualitative agreement with previous measurements in Au-Au at lower collision energies and with expectations from models that incorporate collective phenomena.
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7. |
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8. |
- Abelev, B., et al.
(author)
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Freeze-out radii extracted from three-pion cumulants in pp, p-Pb and Pb-Pb collisions at the LHC
- 2014
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In: Physics Letters. Section B: Nuclear, Elementary Particle and High-Energy Physics. - : Elsevier BV. - 0370-2693. ; 739, s. 139-151
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- In high-energy collisions, the spatio-temporal size of the particle production region can be measured using the Bose-Einstein correlations of identical bosons at low relative momentum. The source radii are typically extracted using two-pion correlations, and characterize the system at the last stage of interaction, called kinetic freeze-out. In low-multiplicity collisions, unlike in high-multiplicity collisions, two-pion correlations are substantially altered by background correlations, e. g. mini-jets. Such correlations can be suppressed using three-pion cumulant correlations. We present the first measurements of the size of the system at freeze-out extracted from three-pion cumulant correlations in pp, p-Pb and Pb-Pb collisions at the LHC with ALICE. At similar multiplicity, the invariant radii extracted in p-Pb collisions are found to be 5-15% larger than those in pp, while those in Pb-Pb are 35-55% larger than those in p-Pb. Our measurements disfavor models which incorporate substantially stronger collective expansion in p-Pb as compared to pp collisions at similar multiplicity. (C) 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY license
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9. |
- Abelev, B., et al.
(author)
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J/psi production and nuclear effects in p-Pb collisions at=5.02 TeV
- 2014
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In: Journal of High Energy Physics. - 1029-8479. ; :2
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Inclusive J/psi production has been studied with the ALICE detector in p-Pb collisions at the nucleon-nucleon center of mass energy = 5.02 TeV at the CERN LHC. The measurement is performed in the center of mass rapidity domains 2.03 < y (cms) < 3.53 and -4.46 < y (cms) < -2.96, down to zero transverse momentum, studying the mu (+) mu (-) decay mode. In this paper, the J/psi production cross section and the nuclear modification factor R (pPb) for the rapidities under study are presented. While at forward rapidity, corresponding to the proton direction, a suppression of the J/psi yield with respect to binary-scaled pp collisions is observed, in the backward region no suppression is present. The ratio of the forward and backward yields is also measured differentially in rapidity and transverse momentum. Theoretical predictions based on nuclear shadowing, as well as on models including, in addition, a contribution from partonic energy loss, are in fair agreement with the experimental results.
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10. |
- Abelev, B, et al.
(author)
-
K_{S}^{0} and Λ Production in Pb-Pb Collisions at sqrt[s_{NN}]=2.76 TeV.
- 2013
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In: Physical Review Letters. - 1079-7114. ; 111:22
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The ALICE measurement of K_{S}^{0} and Λ production at midrapidity in Pb-Pb collisions at sqrt[s_{NN}]=2.76 TeV is presented. The transverse momentum (p_{T}) spectra are shown for several collision centrality intervals and in the p_{T} range from 0.4 GeV/c (0.6 GeV/c for Λ) to 12 GeV/c. The p_{T} dependence of the Λ/K_{S}^{0} ratios exhibits maxima in the vicinity of 3 GeV/c, and the positions of the maxima shift towards higher p_{T} with increasing collision centrality. The magnitude of these maxima increases by almost a factor of three between most peripheral and most central Pb-Pb collisions. This baryon excess at intermediate p_{T} is not observed in pp interactions at sqrt[s]=0.9 TeV and at sqrt[s]=7 TeV. Qualitatively, the baryon enhancement in heavy-ion collisions is expected from radial flow. However, the measured p_{T} spectra above 2 GeV/c progressively decouple from hydrodynamical-model calculations. For higher values of p_{T}, models that incorporate the influence of the medium on the fragmentation and hadronization processes describe qualitatively the p_{T} dependence of the Λ/K_{S}^{0} ratio.
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