Electron identification performance with ALICE TRD prototypes

We present the electron/pion identification performance measured with prototypes for ALICE TRD. Measured spectra of energy deposit of pions and electrons as well as their average values are presented and compared to calculations. Various radiators are investigated over the momentum range of 1 to 6 GeV/c. The time signature of TR is exploited in a bidimensional likelihood mothod.Comment: Presented at the conference "TRDs for the 3rd millenium", Bari, Italy, Sept. 4-7 2003. To appear in Nucl.Instrum.Meth. A. (4 pages, 6 figures

Experimental results and phenomenology of quarkonium production in relativistic nuclear collisions

An overview of recent measurements of quarkonium production in nucleus-nucleus collisions and their understanding in theoretical models is given.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figures; writeup of a plenary talk at Quark Matter 2014; v2: final version (as published), with some rephrasing of tex

Elucidating the multiplicity dependence of J/ψ\psi production in proton-proton collisions with PYTHIA8

A study of prompt and non-prompt J/$\psi$ production as a function of charged-particle multiplicity in inelastic proton--proton (pp) collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV based on calculations using the PYTHIA8 Monte Carlo is reported. Recent experimental data shows an intriguing stronger-than-linear increase of the self-normalized J/$\psi$ yield with multiplicity; several models, based on initial or final state effects, have been able to describe the observed behaviour. In this paper, the microscopic reasons for this behaviour, like the role of multiple parton interactions, colour reconnections and auto-correlations are investigated. It is observed that the stronger-than-linear increase and the transverse momentum ($p_{\rm T}$) dependence, contrary to what is predicted by the other available models, can be attributed to auto-correlation effects only. In absence of auto-correlation effects, the increase of the yield of J/$\psi$ with multiplicity -- and in general for all hard processes -- is weaker than linear for multiplicities exceeding about three times the mean multiplicity. The possibility of disentangling auto-correlation effects from other physical phenomena by measuring the charged-particle multiplicity in different pseudo-rapidity and azimuthal regions relative to the J/$\psi$ direction is investigated. In this regard, it is suggested to extend the experimental measurements of J/$\psi$ production as a function of the charged-particle multiplicity by determining the multiplicity in several azimuthal regions and in particular in the Transverse region with respect to the direction of the J/$\psi$ meson.Comment: 12 pages, 14 figures: accepted by EPJ

The horn, the hadron mass spectrum and the QCD phase diagram - the statistical model of hadron production in central nucleus-nucleus collisions

We present the status of the description of hadron production in central nucleus-nucleus collisions within the statistical model . The recent inclusion of very high-mass resonances and the sigma meson leads to an improved description of the data, in particular the energy dependence of the K+/pi+ ratio at SPS energies (``the horn''). The connection to the QCD phase diagram is discussed.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures; presented at the Nucleus-Nucleus 2009 conference, Beijing, Aug. 200

The charm of hot matter - charmonium and open charm measurements in Pb--Pb collisions with ALICE at the LHC

We present selected results obtained by the ALICE Collaboration concerning charmed hadron and quarkonium production in Pb--Pb collisions at the LHC.Comment: 10 pages, 10 figures; proceedings of the International Workshop on Discovery at the LHC, Kruger Gate, dec. 201

An overview of the experimental study of quark-gluon matter in high-energy nucleus-nucleus collisions

An overview is given on the experimental study of quark-gluon matter produced in relativistic nucleus-nucleus collisions, with emphasis on recent measurements at the Large Hadron Collider.Comment: 31 pages, 20 figures; invited review in Int. J. Mod. Phys. A; based on an overview talk at the Lepton-Photon 2013 conferenc

Quarkonium production in ultra-relativistic nuclear collisions: suppression vs. enhancement

After a brief review of the various scenarios for quarkonium production in ultra-relativistic nucleus-nucleus collisions we focus on the ingredients and assumptions underlying the statistical hadronization model. We then confront model predictions for J/$\psi$ phase space distributions with the most recent data from the RHIC accelerator. Analysis of the rapidity dependence of the J/$\psi$ nuclear modification factor yields first evidence for the production of J/$\psi$ mesons at the phase boundary. We conclude with predictions for charmonium production at the LHC.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures, invited paper, Quark Matter 2006 conference, Shanghai, submitted to J. Phys.

Z0 Boson Measurement with the ALICE Central Barrel in pp collisions at 14 TeV

The possibility to detect the Z0 in the ALICE central barrel is studied via the electronic decay channel Z0->e+e-. The signal and the background are simulated with the leading order event generator PYTHIA 6. The total cross-sections are taken from NLO calculations. Based on test beam data, the electron identification performance of the Transition Radiation Detector is extrapolated to high momenta. The expected yields for minimum-bias pp collisions at 14 TeV are presented. An isolation cut on the single electron, together with a minimum transverse momentum cut, allows to obtain a clear signal. The expected background is of the order of 1 % with the main contribution coming from misidentified pions from jets.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, QM2008 proceeding

The statistical model in Pb-Pb collisions at the LHC

We briefly review the predictions of the thermal model for hadron production in comparison to latest data from RHIC and extrapolate the calculations to LHC energy. Our main emphasis is to confront the model predictions with the recently released data from ALICE at the LHC. This comparison reveals an apparent anomaly for protons and anti-protons which we discuss briefly. We also demonstrate that our statistical hadronization predictions for J/$\psi$ production agree very well with the most recent LHC data, lending support to the picture in which there is complete charmonium melting in the quark-gluon plasma (QGP) followed by statistical generation of J/$\psi$ mesons at the phase boundary.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, proceedings of QM201