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 Charged Particles in Pb-Pb Collisions at root s(NN)=2.76 TeV

We report the first measurement of charged particle elliptic flow in Pb-Pb collisions at root s(NN) p = 2.76 TeV with the ALICE detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. The measurement is performed in the central pseudorapidity region (vertical bar eta vertical bar < 0.8) and transverse momentum range 0.2 < p(t) < 5.0 GeV/c. The elliptic flow signal v(2), measured using the 4-particle correlation method, averaged over transverse momentum and pseudorapidity is 0.087 +/- 0.002(stat) +/- 0.003(syst) in the 40%-50% centrality class. The differential elliptic flow v(2)(p(t)) reaches a maximum of 0.2 near p(t) = 3 GeV/c. Compared to RHIC Au-Au collisions at root s(NN) = 200 GeV, the elliptic flow increases by about 30%. Some hydrodynamic model predictions which include viscous corrections are in agreement with the observed increase

Two- and three-pion quantum statistics correlations in Pb-Pb collisions at 1asNN = 2.76 TeV at the CERN Large Hadron Collider

Correlations induced by quantum statistics are sensitive to the spatiotemporal extent as well as dynamics of particle-emitting sources in heavy-ion collisions. In addition, such correlations can be used to search for the presence of a coherent component of pion production. Two- and three-pion correlations of same and mixed charge are measured at low relative momentum to estimate the coherent fraction of charged pions in Pb-Pb collisions at 1asNN = 2.76 TeV at the CERN Large Hadron Collider with ALICE. The genuine three-pion quantum statistics correlation is found to be suppressed relative to the two-pion correlation based on the assumption of fully chaotic pion emission. The suppression is observed to decrease with triplet momentum. The observed suppression at low triplet momentum may correspond to a coherent fraction in charged-pion emission of 23% \ub1 8%

Rapidity and transverse momentum dependence of inclusive J/psi production in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV

5 figures, submitted to Phys. Lett. B See paper for full list of authorsThe ALICE experiment at the LHC has studied inclusive J/psi production at central and forward rapidities in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV. In this Letter, we report on the first results obtained detecting the J/psi through its dilepton decay into e+e- and mu+mu- pairs in the rapidity range |y|<0.9 and 2.

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

We report on the first measurement of the triangular v3, quadrangular v4, and pentagonal v5 charged particle flow in Pb–Pb collisions at √sNN= 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 v2 and v3 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

Performance of the ALICE experiment at the CERN LHC

ALICE is the heavy-ion experiment at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. The experiment continuously took data during the first physics campaign of the machine from fall 2009 until early 2013, using proton and lead-ion beams. In this paper we describe the running environment and the data handling procedures, and discuss the performance of the ALICE detectors and analysis methods for various physics observables

Measurement of the ratio B(t -> Wb)/B(t -> Wq) in pp collisions at root s=8 TeV

The ratio of the top-quark branching fractions R = B(t --> Wb)/B(t --> Wq), where the denominator includes the sum over all down-type quarks (q = b, s, d), is measured in the t (t) over bar dilepton final state with proton-proton collision data at root s = 8 TeV from an integrated luminosity of 19.7 fb(-1), collected with the CMS detector. In order to quantify the purity of the signal sample, the cross section is measured by fitting the observed jet multiplicity, thereby constraining the signal and background contributions. By counting the number of b jets per event, an unconstrained value of R = 1.014 +/- 0.003 (stat.) +/- 0.032 (syst.) is measured, in a good agreement with current precision measurements in electroweak and flavour sectors. A lower limit R > 0.955 at the 95% confidence level is obtained after requiring R 0.975 is set at 95% confidence level. The result is combined with a previous CMS measurement of the t-channel single-top-quark cross section to determine the top-quark total decay width, Gamma(t) = 1.36 +/- 0.02 (stat.)(-0.11)(+0.14) (syst.) GeV

Searches for supersymmetry based on events with b jets and four W bosons in pp collisions at 8 TeV

Five mutually exclusive searches for supersymmetry are presented based on events in which b jets and four W bosons are produced in proton-proton collisions at root s = 8TeV. The data, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 19.5 fb(-1), were collected with the CMS experiment at the CERN LHC in 2012. The five studies differ in the leptonic signature from the W boson decays, and correspond to all-hadronic, single-lepton, opposite-sign dilepton, same-sign dilepton, and >= 3 lepton final states. The results of the five studies are combined to yield 95% confidence level limits for the gluino and bottom-squark masses in the context of gluino and bottom-squark pair production, respectively. In the limit when the lightest supersymmetric particle is light, gluino and bottom squark masses are excluded below 1280 and 570 GeV, respectively

{Measurement of charm production at central rapidity in proton-proton collisions at s=2.76\sqrt{s}=2.76 TeV}

he pt-differential inclusive production cross sections of the prompt charmed mesons D0, D+, and D∗+ in the rapidity range |y| &lt; 0.5 were measured in proton-proton collisions at √s = 7 TeV at the LHC using the ALICE detector. Reconstructing the decays D0 → K−π+, D+ → K−π+π+, D∗+ → D0π+, and their charge conjugates, about 8,400 D0, 2,900 D+, and 2,600 D∗+ mesons with 1 &lt; pt &lt; 24 GeV/c were counted, after selection cuts, in a data sample of 3.14×108 events collected with a minimum-bias trigger (integrated luminosity Lint = 5 nb−1). The results are described within uncertainties by predictions based on perturbative QCD

Performance of the ALICE experiment at the CERN LHC

ALICE is the heavy-ion experiment at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. The experiment continuously took data during the first physics campaign of the machine from fall 2009 until early 2013, using proton and lead-ion beams. In this paper we describe the running environment and the data handling procedures, and discuss the performance of the ALICE detectors and analysis methods for various physics observables