Towards a consistent Oxfordian–Kimmeridgian global boundary: current state of knowledge

New data are presented in relation to the worldwide definition of the Oxfordian/Kimmeridgian boundary, i.e. the base of the Kimmeridgian Stage. This data, mostly acquired in the past decade, supports the 2006 proposal to make the uniform boundary of the stages in the Flodigarry section at Staffin Bay on the Isle of Skye, northern Scotland. This boundary is based on the Subboreal-Boreal ammonite successions, and it is distinguished by the Pictonia flodigarriensis horizon at the base of the Subboreal Baylei Zone, and which corresponds precisely to the base of the Boreal Bauhini Zone. The boundary lies in the 0.16 m interval (1.24–1.08 m) below bed 36 in sections F6 at Flodigarry and it is thus proposed as the GSSP for the Oxfordian/Kimmeridgian boundary. This boundary is recognized also by other stratigraphical data – palaeontological, geochemical and palaeomagnetic (including its well documented position close to the boundary between magnetozones F3n, and F3r which is placed in the 0.20 m interval – 1.28 m to 1.48 m below bed 36 – the latter corresponding to marine magnetic anomaly M26r).The boundary is clearly recognizable also in other sections of the Subboreal and Boreal areas discussed in the study, including southern England, Pomerania and the Peri-Baltic Syneclise, Russian Platform, Northern Central Siberia, Franz-Josef Land, Barents Sea and Norwegian Sea. It can be recognized also in the Submediterranean-Mediterranean areas of Europe and Asia where it correlates with the boundary between the Hypselum and the Bimmamatum ammonite zones. The changes in ammonite faunas at the boundary of these ammonite zones – mostly of ammonites of the families Aspidoceratidae and Oppeliidae – also enables the recognition of the boundary in the Tethyan and Indo-Pacific areas – such as the central part of the Americas (Cuba, Mexico), southern America, and southern parts of Asia. The climatic and environmental changes near to the Oxfordian/Kimmeridgian boundary discussed in the study relate mostly to the European areas. They show that very unstable environments at the end of the Oxfordian were subsequently replaced by more stable conditions representing a generally warming trend during the earliest Kimmeridgian. The definition of the boundary between the Oxfordian and Kimmeridgian as given in this study results in its wide correlation potential and means that it can be recognized in the different marine successions of the World

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

Overview of the CKM Matrix

The current status of the determination of the elements of the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa quark-mixing matrix is reviewed. Tensions in the global fits are highlighted. Particular attention is paid to progress in, and prospects for, measurements of CP violation effects.Comment: Proceedings of the Lepton Photon 2011 Conference, to appear in "Pramana - journal of physics", 17 pages, 13 figure

First measurement of the |t|-dependence of coherent J/ψ photonuclear production

The first measurement of the cross section for coherent J/ψ photoproduction as a function of |t|, the square of the momentum transferred between the incoming and outgoing target nucleus, is presented. The data were measured with the ALICE detector in ultra-peripheral Pb–Pb collisions at a centre-of-mass energy per nucleon pair sNN=5.02TeV with the J/ψ produced in the central rapidity region |y|<0.8, which corresponds to the small Bjorken-x range (0.3−1.4)×10−3. The measured |t|-dependence is not described by computations based only on the Pb nuclear form factor, while the photonuclear cross section is better reproduced by models including shadowing according to the leading-twist approximation, or gluon-saturation effects from the impact-parameter dependent Balitsky–Kovchegov equation. These new results are therefore a valid tool to constrain the relevant model parameters and to investigate the transverse gluonic structure at very low Bjorken-x.publishedVersio

First measurement of coherent ρ0 photoproduction in ultra-peripheral Xe–Xe collisions at √sNN = 5.44 TeV

The first measurement of the coherent photoproduction of ρ0 vector mesons in ultra-peripheral Xe–Xe collisions at sNN=5.44 TeV is presented. This result, together with previous HERA γp data and γ–Pb measurements from ALICE, describes the atomic number (A) dependence of this process, which is particularly sensitive to nuclear shadowing effects and to the approach to the black-disc limit of QCD at a semi-hard scale. The cross section of the Xe+Xe→ρ0+Xe+Xe process, measured at midrapidity through the decay channel ρ0→π+π−, is found to be dσ/dy=131.5±5.6(stat.)−16.9+17.5(syst.) mb. The ratio of the continuum to resonant contributions for the production of pion pairs is also measured. In addition, the fraction of events accompanied by electromagnetic dissociation of either one or both colliding nuclei is reported. The dependence on A of cross section for the coherent ρ0 photoproduction at a centre-of-mass energy per nucleon of the γA system of WγA,n=65 GeV is found to be consistent with a power-law behaviour σ(γA→ρ0A)∝Aα with a slope α=0.96±0.02(syst.). This slope signals important shadowing effects, but it is still far from the behaviour expected in the black-disc limit.publishedVersio

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