First proton-proton collisions at the LHC as observed with the ALICE detector: measurement of the charged-particle pseudorapidity density at root s=900 GeV

On 23rd November 2009, during the early commissioning of the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC), two counter-rotating proton bunches were circulated for the first time concurrently in the machine, at the LHC injection energy of 450 GeV per beam. Although the proton intensity was very low, with only one pilot bunch per beam, and no systematic attempt was made to optimize the collision optics, all LHC experiments reported a number of collision candidates. In the ALICE experiment, the collision region was centred very well in both the longitudinal and transverse directions and 284 events were recorded in coincidence with the two passing proton bunches. The events were immediately reconstructed and analyzed both online and offline. We have used these events to measure the pseudorapidity density of charged primary particles in the central region. In the range vertical bar eta vertical bar S collider. They also illustrate the excellent functioning and rapid progress of the LHC accelerator, and of both the hardware and software of the ALICE experiment, in this early start-up phase

Two-pion Bose–Einstein correlations in central Pb–Pb collisions at sNN=2.76 TeV

AbstractThe first measurement of two-pion Bose–Einstein correlations in central Pb–Pb collisions at sNN=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

Centrality dependence of the pseudorapidity density distribution for charged particles in Pb–Pb collisions at sNN=2.76 TeV

AbstractWe present the first wide-range measurement of the charged-particle pseudorapidity density distribution, for different centralities (the 0–5%, 5–10%, 10–20%, and 20–30% most central events) in Pb–Pb collisions at sNN=2.76 TeV at the LHC. The measurement is performed using the full coverage of the ALICE detectors, −5.0<η<5.5, and employing a special analysis technique based on collisions arising from LHC ‘satellite’ 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=17165±772 for the 0–5% most central collisions). From the measured dNch/dη 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

Production of charged pions, kaons and protons at large transverse momenta in pp and Pb–Pb collisions at sNN=2.76 TeV

AbstractTransverse momentum spectra of π±, K± and p(p¯) up to pT=20 GeV/c at mid-rapidity in pp, peripheral (60–80%) and central (0–5%) Pb–Pb collisions at sNN=2.76 TeV have been measured using the ALICE detector at the Large Hadron Collider. The proton-to-pion and the kaon-to-pion ratios both show a distinct peak at pT≈3 GeV/c in central Pb–Pb collisions. Below the peak, pT<3 GeV/c, both ratios are in good agreement with hydrodynamical calculations, suggesting that the peak itself is dominantly the result of radial flow rather than anomalous hadronization processes. For pT>10 GeV/c particle ratios in pp and Pb–Pb collisions are in agreement and the nuclear modification factors for π±, K± and p(p¯) 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/ψ suppression in Pb–Pb collisions at sNN=2.76 TeV

AbstractThe inclusive J/ψ nuclear modification factor (RAA) in Pb–Pb collisions at sNN=2.76 TeV has 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 μ+μ− decay channel at forward-rapidity (2.5<y<4). The J/ψ yields measured in Pb–Pb are suppressed compared to those in pp collisions scaled by the number of binary collisions. The RAA integrated 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 RAA are measured at forward-rapidity compared to measurements at lower energy. These features suggest that a contribution to the J/ψ yield originates from charm quark (re)combination in the deconfined partonic medium

Multiplicity dependence of pion, kaon, proton and lambda production in p–Pb collisions at sNN=5.02 TeV

AbstractIn this Letter, comprehensive results on π±, K±, KS0, p(p¯) and Λ(Λ¯) production at mid-rapidity (0<yCMS<0.5) in p–Pb collisions at sNN=5.02 TeV, measured by the ALICE detector at the LHC, are reported. The transverse momentum distributions exhibit a hardening as a function of event multiplicity, which is stronger for heavier particles. This behavior is similar to what has been observed in pp and Pb–Pb collisions at the LHC. The measured pT distributions are compared to d–Au, Au–Au and Pb–Pb results at lower energy and with predictions based on QCD-inspired and hydrodynamic models