Higher harmonic anisotropic flow measurements of charged particles in Pb-Pb collisions at 2.76 TeV

We report on the first measurement of the triangular $v_3$, quadrangular $v_4$, and pentagonal $v_5$ charged particle flow in Pb-Pb collisions at 2.76 TeV measured with the ALICE detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. We show that the triangular flow can be described in terms of the initial spatial anisotropy and its fluctuations, which provides strong constraints on its origin. In the most central events, where the elliptic flow $v_2$ and $v_3$ have similar magnitude, a double peaked structure in the two-particle azimuthal correlations is observed, which is often interpreted as a Mach cone response to fast partons. We show that this structure can be naturally explained from the measured anisotropic flow Fourier coefficients.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures, published version, figures at http://aliceinfo.cern.ch/ArtSubmission/node/387

Elliptic flow of identified hadrons in Pb-Pb collisions at 1asNN = 2.76 TeV

The elliptic flow coefficient (v2) of identified particles in Pb-Pb collisions at 1asNN = 2.76 TeV was measured with the ALICE detector at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). The results were obtained with the Scalar Product method, a two-particle corre- lation technique, using a pseudo-rapidity gap of | 06\u3b7| > 0.9 between the identified hadron under study and the reference particles. The v2 is reported for \u3c0\ub1, K\ub1, K0S, p+p, \u3c6, \u39b+\u39b, \u39e 12+\u39e+ and \u3a9 12+\u3a9+ in several collision centralities. In the low transverse momentum (pT) region, pT 3 GeV/c

Centrality dependence of inclusive J/\u3c8 production in p-Pb collisions at 1asNN = 5.02 TeV

We present a measurement of inclusive J/\u3c8 production in p-Pb collisions at 1asNN = 5.02TeV as a function of the centrality of the collision, as estimated from the energy deposited in the Zero Degree Calorimeters. The measurement is performed with the ALICE detector down to zero transverse momentum, pT, in the backward ( 124.46 < ycms < 122.96) and forward (2.03 < ycms < 3.53) rapidity intervals in the dimuon decay channel and in the mid-rapidity region ( 121.37 < ycms < 0.43) in the dielectron decay channel. The backward and forward rapidity intervals correspond to the Pb-going and p-going direction, respectively. The pT-differential J/\u3c8 production cross section at backward and forward rapidity is measured for several centrality classes, together with the corresponding average pT and pT2 values. The nuclear modification factor is presented as a function of centrality for the three rapidity intervals, and as a function of pT for several centrality classes at backward and forward rapidity. At mid- and forward rapidity, the J/\u3c8 yield is suppressed up to 40% compared to that in pp interactions scaled by the number of binary collisions. The degree of suppression increases towards central p-Pb collisions at forward rapidity, and with decreasing pT of the J/\u3c8. At backward rapidity, the nuclear modification factor is compatible with unity within the total uncertainties, with an increasing trend from peripheral to central p-Pb collisions

Centrality dependence of high-pT D meson suppression in Pb-Pb collisions at 1asNN = 2.76 TeV

The nuclear modification factor, RAA, of the prompt charmed mesons D0, D+ and D 17+, and their antiparticles, was measured with the ALICE detector in Pb-Pb collisions at a centre-of-mass energy 1asNN = 2.76 TeV in two transverse momentum intervals, 5 < pT < 8GeV/c and 8 < pT < 16GeV/c, and in six collision centrality classes. The RAA shows a maximum suppression of a factor of 5\u20136 in the 10% most central collisions. The suppression and its centrality dependence are compatible within uncertainties with those of charged pions. A comparison with the RAA of non-prompt J/\u3c8 from B meson decays, measured by the CMS Collaboration, hints at a larger suppression of D mesons in the most central collisions

Centrality Dependence of the Charged-Particle Multiplicity Density at Midrapidity in Pb-Pb Collisions at root s(NN)=2.76 TeV

The centrality dependence of the charged-particle multiplicity density at midrapidity in Pb-Pb collisions at root s(NN) = 2: 76 TeV is presented. The charged-particle density normalized per participating nucleon pair increases by about a factor of 2 from peripheral (70%-80%) to central (0%-5%) collisions. The centrality dependence is found to be similar to that observed at lower collision energies. The data are compared with models based on different mechanisms for particle production in nuclear collisions

Event-by-event mean pT \ua0fluctuations in pp and Pb\u2013Pb collisions at the LHC

Event-by-event fluctuations of the mean transverse momentum of charged particles produced in pp collisions at 1as = 0.9, 2.76 and 7 TeV, and Pb\u2013Pb collisions at 1asNN = 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 emis- sion 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\u2013Pb data exhibit a similar multiplicity dependence as that observed in pp. In central Pb\u2013Pb, the results deviate from this trend, featuring a significant reduction of the fluctuation strength. The results in Pb\u2013 Pb are in qualitative agreement with previous measurements in Au\u2013Au at lower collision energies and with expectations from models that incorporate collective phenomena

Neutral pion production at midrapidity in pp and Pb\u2013Pb collisions at 1asNN = 2.76 TeV

Invariant yields of neutral pions at midrapidity in the transverse momentum range 0.6 < pT < 12 GeV/c measured in Pb\u2013Pb collisions at 1asNN = 2.76 TeV are presented for six centrality classes. The pp reference spectrum was measured in the range 0.4 < pT < 10 GeV/c at the same center-of-mass energy. The nuclear modification factor, RAA , shows a suppression of neutral pions in central Pb\u2013Pb collisions by a factor of up to about 8 1210 for 5 pT 7GeV/c. The presented measurements are compared with results at lower center-of-mass energies and with theoretical calculations

Transverse Momentum Distribution and Nuclear Modification Factor of Charged Particles in p+Pb Collisions at sqrt[s_{NN}]=5.02\u2009\u2009TeV

The transverse momentum (pT) distribution of primary charged particles is measured in minimum bias (non-single-diffractive) p+Pb collisions at 1asNN=5.02 TeV with the ALICE detector at the LHC. The p T spectra measured near central rapidity in the range 0.5<p T<20 GeV/c exhibit a weak pseudorapidity dependence. The nuclear modification factor RpPb is consistent with unity for pT above 2 GeV/c. This measurement indicates that the strong suppression of hadron production at high pT observed in Pb+Pb collisions at the LHC is not due to an initial-state effect. The measurement is compared to theoretical calculations

J/\u3c8 Elliptic Flow in Pb-Pb Collisions at sqrt[s_{NN}]=2.76\u2009\u2009TeV

We report on the first measurement of inclusive J/\u3c8 elliptic flow v2 in heavy-ion collisions at the LHC. The measurement is performed with the ALICE detector in Pb-Pb collisions at 1asNN=2.76 TeV in the rapidity range 2,5<y<4,0. The dependence of the J=c v2 on the collision centrality and on the J/\u3c8 transverse momentum is studied in the range 0 64pT 64 10 GeV/c. For semicentral Pb-Pb collisions at 1asNN=2.76 TeV, an indication of nonzero v2 is observed with a largest measured value of v2=0.116 \ub1 0.046 (stat) \ub1 0:029 (syst) for J/\u3c8 in the transverse momentum range 2 64 pT 64 4 GeV/c. The elliptic flow measurement complements the previously reported ALICE results on the inclusive J/\u3c8 nuclear modification factor and favors the scenario of a significant fraction of J/\u3c8 production from charm quarks in a deconfined partonic phase

Femtoscopy of pp collisions at sqrt[s]=0.9 and 7\ua0TeV at the LHC with two-pion Bose-Einstein correlations

We report on the high statistics two-pion correlation functions from pp collisions at root s = 0.9 TeV and root s = 7 TeV, measured by the ALICE experiment at the Large Hadron Collider. The correlation functions as well as the extracted source radii scale with event multiplicity and pair momentum. When analyzed in the same multiplicity and pair transverse momentum range, the correlation is similar at the two collision energies. A three-dimensional femtoscopic analysis shows an increase of the emission zone with increasing event multiplicity as well as decreasing homogeneity lengths with increasing transverse momentum. The latter trend gets more pronounced as multiplicity increases. This suggests the development of space-momentum correlations, at least for collisions producing a high multiplicity of particles. We consider these trends in the context of previous femtoscopic studies in high-energy hadron and heavy-ion collisions and discuss possible underlying physics mechanisms. Detailed analysis of the correlation reveals an exponential shape in the outward and longitudinal directions, while the sideward remains a Gaussian. This is interpreted as a result of a significant contribution of strongly decaying resonances to the emission region shape. Significant nonfemtoscopic correlations are observed, and are argued to be the consequence of "mini-jet"-like structures extending to low p(t). They are well reproduced by the Monte-Carlo generators and seen also in pi(+)pi(-) correlations