Two-pion Bose-Einstein correlations in central Pb-Pb collisions at sNN\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}} = 2.76 TeV

The first measurement of two-pion Bose-Einstein correlations in central Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}} = 2.76$ TeV at the Large Hadron Collider is presented. We observe a growing trend with energy now not only for the longitudinal and the outward but also for the sideward pion source radius. The pion homogeneity volume and the decoupling time are significantly larger than those measured at RHIC.Comment: 17 pages, 5 captioned figures, 1 table, authors from page 12, published version, figures at http://aliceinfo.cern.ch/ArtSubmission/node/388

Suppression of charged particle production at large transverse momentum in central Pb-Pb collisions at sNN=2.76\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}} = 2.76 TeV

Inclusive transverse momentum spectra of primary charged particles in Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{_{\rm NN}}}$ = 2.76 TeV have been measured by the ALICE Collaboration at the LHC. The data are presented for central and peripheral collisions, corresponding to 0-5% and 70-80% of the hadronic Pb-Pb cross section. The measured charged particle spectra in $|\eta|<0.8$ and $0.3 < p_T < 20$ GeV/$c$ are compared to the expectation in pp collisions at the same $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}$, scaled by the number of underlying nucleon-nucleon collisions. The comparison is expressed in terms of the nuclear modification factor $R_{\rm AA}$. The result indicates only weak medium effects ($R_{\rm AA} \approx$ 0.7) in peripheral collisions. In central collisions, $R_{\rm AA}$ reaches a minimum of about 0.14 at $p_{\rm T}=6$-7GeV/$c$ and increases significantly at larger $p_{\rm T}$. The measured suppression of high-$p_{\rm T}$ particles is stronger than that observed at lower collision energies, indicating that a very dense medium is formed in central Pb-Pb collisions at the LHC.Comment: 15 pages, 5 captioned figures, 3 tables, authors from page 10, published version, figures at http://aliceinfo.cern.ch/ArtSubmission/node/98

Production of charged pions, kaons and protons at large transverse momenta in pp and Pb–Pb collisions at sNN=2.76\sqrt{s_{NN}}=2.76 TeV

Transverse momentum spectra of pi(+/-), K-+/- and p((p) over bar) up to p(T) = 20 GeV/c at mid-rapidity in pp, peripheral (60-80%) and central (0-5%) Pb-Pb collisions at v root s(NN) = 2.76 TeV have been measured using the ALICE detector at the Large Hadron Collider. The proton-to-pion and the kaon-to-pionratios both show a distinct peak at p(T) approximate to 3 GeV/c in central Pb-Pb collisions. Below the peak, p(T) 10 GeV/c particle ratios in pp and Pb-Pb collisions are in agreement and the nuclear modification factors for pi(+/-), K-+/- and p((p) over bar) indicate that, within the systematic and statistical uncertainties, the suppression is the same. This suggests that the chemical composition of leading particles from jets in the medium is similar to that of vacuum jets

Centrality, rapidity and transverse momentum dependence of J/\u3c8 suppression in Pb-Pb collisions at 1asNN= 2.76TeV

The inclusive J/.nuclear modification factor (R-AA) in Pb-Pb collisions at root(NN)-N-S = 2.76TeVhas been measured by ALICE as a function of centrality in the e+ e-decay channel at mid-rapidity (| y| < 0.8) and as a function of centrality, transverse momentum and rapidity in the + -decay channel at forward-rapidity (2.5 < y < 4). The J/.yields measured in Pb-Pb are suppressed compared to those in ppcollisions scaled by the number of binary collisions. The RAAintegrated over a centrality range corresponding to 90% of the inelastic Pb-Pb cross section is 0.72 - 0.06(stat.) - 0.10(syst.) at mid-rapidity and 0.58 - 0.01(stat.) - 0.09(syst.) at forward-rapidity. At low transverse momentum, significantly larger values of RAAare measured at forward-rapidity compared to measurements at lower energy. These features suggest that a contribution to the J/.yield originates from charm quark (re) combination in the deconfined partonic medium

Measurement of B0 ---> D(*)+ D*- branching fractions and B0 ---> D*+(s) D*- polarization with a partial reconstruction technique

We present a study of the decays B0->D_s(*)+D*-, using 20.8 fb-1 of e+e- annihilation data recorded with the BABAR detector. The analysis is conducted with a partial reconstruction technique, in which only the D_s(*)+ and the soft pion from the D*- decay are reconstructed. We measure the branching fractions BR(B0->D_s+D*-) = (1.03 +/- 0.14 +/- 0.13 +/- 0.26)% and BR(B0->D_s*+D*-) = (1.97 +/- 0.15 +/- 0.30 +/- 0.49)%, where the first error is statistical, the second is systematic, and the third is the error due to the D_s+->phi pi+ branching fraction uncertainty. From the B0->D_s*+D*- angular distributions, we measure the fraction of longitudinal polarization Gamma_L/Gamma = (51.9 +/- 5.0 +/- 2.8)%, which is consistent with theoretical predictions based on factorization.Comment: 9 pages, 4 postscript figues, submitted to Physical Review D (Rapid Communications

Measurement of the CKM matrix element |V(ub)| with B ---> rho e nu decays

We present a measurement of the branching fraction for the rare decays B->rho e nu and extract a value for the magnitude of Vub, one of the smallest elements of the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa quark-mixing matrix. The results are given for five different calculations of form factors used to parametrize the hadronic current in semileptonic decays. Using a sample of 55 million BBbar meson pairs recorded with the BABAR detector at the PEP-II e+e- storage ring, we obtain Br(B0->rho- e+ nu)=(3.29 +-0.42 +-0.47 +-0.60) x 10^-4 and |Vub|=(3.64 +-0.22 +-0.25 +0.39-0.56)x10^-3, where the uncertainties are statistical, systematic, and theoretical, respectively.Comment: Submitted to Phys. Rev. Let

Measurement of the branching fraction and CP violating asymmetries in neutral B decays to D*+- D-+

We present measurements of the branching fraction and CP-violating asymmetries for neutral B decays to D*+-D-+. The measurement uses a data sample of approximately 88 million Y(4S) --> B Bbar decays collected with the BABAR detector at the SLAC PEP-II asymmetric-energy B factory. We measure the branching fraction to be (8.8 +- 1.0 +- 1.3) x 10^-4 and the time-integrated CP-violating asymmetry between the rates to D*+D- and D*-D+ to be A = -0.03 +- 0.11 +- 0.05. We also measure the time-dependent CP-violating asymmetry parameters to be S-+ = -0.24 +- 0.69 +- 0.12, C-+ = -0.22 +- 0.37 +- 0.10 for B --> D*-D+ and S+- = -0.82 +- 0.75 +- 0.14$, C+- = -0.47 +- 0.40 +- 0.12 for B --> D*+D-. In each case the first error is statistical and the second error is systematic.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures, published as Phys. Rev. Lett 90 (2003) 22180

Centrality dependence of the pseudorapidity density distribution for charged particles in Pb\u2013Pb collisions at 1asNN = 2.76 TeV

We present the first wide-range measurement of the charged-particle pseudorapidity density distribution, for different centralities (the 0\u20135%, 5\u201310%, 10\u201320%, and 20\u201330% most central events) in Pb\u2013Pb collisions at 1asNN = 2.76 TeV at the LHC. The measurement is performed using the full coverage of the ALICE detectors, 125.0 < \u3b7 < 5.5, and employing a special analysis technique based on collisions arising from LHC \u2018satellite\u2019 bunches. We present the pseudorapidity density as a function of the number of participating nucleons as well as an extrapolation to the total number of produced charged particles (Nch = 17 165 \ub1 772 for the 0\u20135% most central collisions). From the measured dNch/d\u3b7 distribution we derive the rapidity density distribution, dNch/dy, under simple assumptions. The rapidity density distribution is found to be significantly wider than the predictions of the Landau model. We assess the validity of longitudinal scaling by comparing to lower energy results from RHIC. Finally the mechanisms of the underlying particle production are discussed based on a comparison with various theoretical models

Measurement of the branching fraction for inclusive semileptonic B meson decays

A largely model-independent measurement of the inclusive electron momentum spectrum and branching fraction for semileptonic decays of B mesons is presented based on data recorded at the Upsilon(4S) resonance with the BABAR detector. Backgrounds from secondary charm decays are separated from prompt B decays using charge and angular correlations between the electron from one B meson and a high momentum electron tag from the second B meson. The resulting branching fraction is BR(B -> X e nu) = (10.87 +-0.18(stat)+-0.30(syst))%. Based on this measurement we determine the CKM matrix element |V_cb|

Measurement of the branching fraction for inclusive semileptonic B meson decays

A largely model-independent measurement of the inclusive electron momentum spectrum and branching fraction for semileptonic decays of B mesons is presented based on data recorded at the Upsilon(4S) resonance with the BABAR detector. Backgrounds from secondary charm decays are separated from prompt B decays using charge and angular correlations between the electron from one B meson and a high momentum electron tag from the second B meson. The resulting branching fraction is BR(B -> X e nu) = (10.87 +-0.18(stat)+-0.30(syst))%. Based on this measurement we determine the CKM matrix element |V_cb|