Psychology as a natural science in the eighteenth century

Psychology considered as a natural science began as Aristotelian "physics" or "natural philosophy" of the soul. C. Wolff placed psychology under metaphysics, coordinate with cosmology. Scottish thinkers placed it within moral philosophy, but distinguished its "physical" laws from properly moral laws (for guiding conduct). Several Germans sought to establish an autonomous empirical psychology as a branch of natural science. British and French visual theorists developed mathematically precise theories of size and distance perception; they created instruments to test these theories and to measure visual phenomena such as the duration of visual impressions. These investigators typically were dualists who included mental phenomena within nature

Centrality evolution of the charged-particle pseudorapidity density over a broad pseudorapidity range in Pb-Pb collisions at root s(NN)=2.76TeV

Peer reviewe

HΛ3 and H‾Λ‾3 lifetime measurement in Pb–Pb collisions at √sNN=5.02 TeV via two-body decay

An improved value for the lifetime of the (anti-)hypertriton has been obtained using the data sample of Pb–Pb collisions at √sNN = 5.02 TeV collected by the ALICE experiment at the LHC. The (anti-)hypertriton has been reconstructed via its charged two-body mesonic decay channel and the lifetime has been determined from an exponential fit to the dN/d(ct) spectrum. The measured value, τ = 242+34 −38 (stat.) ± 17 (syst.) ps, is compatible with representative theoretical predictions, thus contributing to the solution of the longstanding hypertriton lifetime puzzle

Study of the Λ–Λ interaction with femtoscopy correlations in pp and p–Pb collisions at the LHC

This work presents new constraints on the existence and the binding energy of a possible – bound state, the H-dibaryon, derived from – femtoscopic measurements by the ALICE collaboration. The results are obtained from a new measurement using the femtoscopy technique in pp collisions at √s = 13 TeV and p–Pb collisions at √sNN = 5.02 TeV, combined with previously published results from pp collisions at √s = 7 TeV. The – scattering parameter space, spanned by the inverse scattering length f −1 0 and the effective range d0, is constrained by comparing the measured – correlation function with calculations obtained within the Lednický model. The data are compatible with hypernuclei results and lattice computations, both predicting a shallow attractive interaction, and permit to test different theoretical approaches describing the – interaction. The region in the (f −1 0 ,d0) plane which would accommodate a – bound state is substantially restricted compared to previous studies. The binding energy of the possible – bound state is estimated within an effective-range expansion approach and is found to be B = 3.2+1.6 −2.4(stat)+1.8 −1.0(syst) MeV

Measuring KS0K± interactions using Pb–Pb collisions at √sNN=2.76 TeV

We present the first ever measurements of femtoscopic correlations between the K0 S and K± particles. The analysis was performed on the data from Pb–Pb collisions at √sNN = 2.76 TeV measured by the ALICE experiment. The observed femtoscopic correlations are consistent with final-state interactions proceeding via the a0(980) resonance. The extracted kaon source radius and correlation strength parameters for K0 SK− are found to be equal within the experimental uncertainties to those for K0 SK+. Comparing the results of the present study with those from published identical-kaon femtoscopic studies by ALICE, mass and coupling parameters for the a0 resonance are tested. Our results are also compatible with the interpretation of the a0 having a tetraquark structure instead of that of a diquar

Measurement of electrons from semileptonic heavy-flavour hadron decays at midrapidity in pp and Pb–Pb collisions at √sNN = 5.02 TeV

The differential invariant yield as a function of transverse momentum (pT) of electrons from semileptonic heavy-flavour hadron decays was measured at midrapidity in central (0–10%), semi-central (30–50%) and peripheral (60–80%) lead–lead (Pb–Pb) collisions at √sNN = 5.02 TeV in the pT intervals 0.5–26 GeV/c (0–10% and 30–50%) and 0.5–10 GeV/c (60–80%). The production cross section in proton–proton (pp) collisions at √s = 5.02 TeV was measured as well in 0.5 < pT < 10 GeV/c and it lies close to the upper band of perturbative QCD calculation uncertainties up to pT = 5 GeV/c and close to the mean value for larger pT. The modification of the electron yield with respect to what is expected for an incoherent superposition of nucleon–nucleon collisions is evaluated by measuring the nuclear modification factor RAA. The measurement of the RAA in different centrality classes allows in-medium energy loss of charm and beauty quarks to be investigated. The RAA shows a suppression with respect to unity at intermediate pT, which increases while moving towards more central collisions. Moreover, the measured RAA is sensitive to the modification of the parton distribution functions (PDF) in nuclei, like nuclear shadowing, which causes a suppression of the heavy-quark production at low pT in heavy-ion collisions at LHC

Dielectron and heavy-quark production in inelastic and high-multiplicity proton–proton collisions at √s = 13 TeV

The measurement of dielectron production is presented as a function of invariant mass and transverse momentum (pT) at midrapidity (|ye| < 0.8) in proton–proton (pp) collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of √s = 13 TeV. The contributions from light-hadron decays are calculated from their measured cross sections in pp collisions at √s = 7 TeV or 13 TeV. The remaining continuum stems from correlated semileptonic decays of heavy-flavour hadrons. Fitting the data with templates from two different MC event generators, PYTHIA and POWHEG, the charm and beauty cross sections at midrapidity are extracted for the first time at this collision energy: dσcc¯/dy|y=0 = 974 ± 138 (stat.) ± 140 (syst.) ± 214(BR) μb and dσbb¯ /dy|y=0 = 79 ± 14 (stat.) ± 11 (syst.) ± 5(BR) μb using PYTHIA simulations and dσcc¯/dy|y=0 = 1417 ± 184 (stat.) ± 204 (syst.) ± 312(BR) μb and dσbb¯ /dy|y=0 = 48 ± 14 (stat.) ± 7 (syst.) ± 3(BR) μb for POWHEG. These values, whose uncertainties are fully correlated between the two generators, are consistent with extrapolations from lower energies. The different results obtained with POWHEG and PYTHIA imply different kinematic correlations of the heavy-quark pairs in these two generators. Furthermore, comparisons of dielectron spectra in inelastic events and in events collected with a trigger on high charged-particle multiplicities are presented in various pT intervals. The differences are consistent with the already measured scaling of light-hadron and open-charm production at high charged-particle multiplicity as a function of pT. Upper limits for the contribution of virtual direct photons are extracted at 90% confidence level and found to be in agreement with pQCD calculations

Constraining the magnitude of the Chiral Magnetic Effect with Event Shape Engineering in Pb-Pb collisions at sNN\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}} = 2.76$ TeV

In ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions, the event-by-event variation of the elliptic flow $v_2$ reflects fluctuations in the shape of the initial state of the system. This allows to select events with the same centrality but different initial geometry. This selection technique, Event Shape Engineering, has been used in the analysis of charge-dependent two- and three-particle correlations in Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{_{\rm NN}}} =2.76$ TeV. The two-particle correlator $\langle \cos(\varphi_\alpha - \varphi_\beta) \rangle$, calculated for different combinations of charges $\alpha$ and $\beta$, is almost independent of $v_2$ (for a given centrality), while the three-particle correlator $\langle \cos(\varphi_\alpha + \varphi_\beta - 2\Psi_2) \rangle$ scales almost linearly both with the event $v_2$ and charged-particle pseudorapidity density. The charge dependence of the three-particle correlator is often interpreted as evidence for the Chiral Magnetic Effect (CME), a parity violating effect of the strong interaction. However, its measured dependence on $v_2$ points to a large non-CME contribution to the correlator. Comparing the results with Monte Carlo calculations including a magnetic field due to the spectators, the upper limit of the CME signal contribution to the three-particle correlator in the 10-50% centrality interval is found to be 26-33% at 95% confidence level