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

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

Effective Rheology of Bubbles Moving in a Capillary Tube

We calculate the average volumetric flux versus pressure drop of bubbles moving in a single capillary tube with varying diameter, finding a square-root relation from mapping the flow equations onto that of a driven overdamped pendulum. The calculation is based on a derivation of the equation of motion of a bubble train from considering the capillary forces and the entropy production associated with the viscous flow. We also calculate the configurational probability of the positions of the bubbles.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figur

Alignment of the ALICE Inner Tracking System with cosmic-ray tracks

37 pages, 15 figures, revised version, accepted by JINSTALICE (A Large Ion Collider Experiment) is the LHC (Large Hadron Collider) experiment devoted to investigating the strongly interacting matter created in nucleus-nucleus collisions at the LHC energies. The ALICE ITS, Inner Tracking System, consists of six cylindrical layers of silicon detectors with three different technologies; in the outward direction: two layers of pixel detectors, two layers each of drift, and strip detectors. The number of parameters to be determined in the spatial alignment of the 2198 sensor modules of the ITS is about 13,000. The target alignment precision is well below 10 micron in some cases (pixels). The sources of alignment information include survey measurements, and the reconstructed tracks from cosmic rays and from proton-proton collisions. The main track-based alignment method uses the Millepede global approach. An iterative local method was developed and used as well. We present the results obtained for the ITS alignment using about 10^5 charged tracks from cosmic rays that have been collected during summer 2008, with the ALICE solenoidal magnet switched off.Peer reviewe

Measurement of prompt J/psi and beauty hadron production cross sections at mid-rapidity in pp collisions at root s=7 TeV

The ALICE experiment at the LHC has studied J/psi production at mid-rapidity in pp collisions at root s = 7 TeV through its electron pair decay on a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity L-int = 5.6 nb(-1). The fraction of J/psi from the decay of long-lived beauty hadrons was determined for J/psi candidates with transverse momentum p(t) > 1,3 GeV/c and rapidity vertical bar y vertical bar 1.3 GeV/c, vertical bar y vertical bar 1.3 GeV/c and vertical bar y vertical bar 1.3 GeV/c, vertical bar y vertical bar < 0.9) = 1.46 +/- 0.38 (stat.)(-0.32)(+0.26) (syst.) mu b. The results are compared to QCD model predictions. The shape of the p(t) and y distributions of b-quarks predicted by perturbative QCD model calculations are used to extrapolate the measured cross section to derive the b (b) over bar pair total cross section and d sigma/dy at mid-rapidity

Measurement of the inclusive differential jet cross section in pp collisions at root s=2.76 TeV

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)The ALICE Collaboration at the CERN Large Hadron Collider reports the first measurement of the inclusive differential jet cross section at mid-rapidity in pp collisions at root s = 2.76 TeV, with integrated luminosity of 13.6 nb(-1). Jets are measured over the transverse momentum range 20 to 125 GeV/c and are corrected to the particle level. Calculations based on Next-to-Leading Order perturbative QCD are in good agreement with the measurements. The ratio of inclusive jet cross sections for jet radii R = 0.2 and R = 0.4 is reported, and is also well reproduced by a Next-to-Leading Order perturbative QCD calculation when hadronization effects are included. (c) 2013 CERN. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.72241763262272State Committee of Science, ArmeniaCalouste Gulbenkian Foundation from Lisbon, ArmeniaSwiss Fonds Kidagan, ArmeniaConselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)Financiadora de Estudos e Projetos (FINEP)Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC)Chinese Ministry of Education (CMOE)Ministry of Science and Technology of China (MSTC)Ministry of Education and Youth of the Czech RepublicDanish Natural Science Research CouncilCarlsberg FoundationDanish National Research FoundationThe European Research Council under the European Community's Seventh Framework ProgrammeHelsinki Institute of PhysicsAcademy of FinlandFrench CNRS-IN2P3, France'Region Pays de Loire', France'Region Alsace', France'Region Auvergne', FranceCEA, FranceGerman BMBFHelmholtz AssociationGeneral Secretariat for Research and Technology, Ministry of Development, GreeceHungarian OTKANational Office for Research and Technology (NKTH)Department of Atomic Energy of the Government of IndiaDepartment of Science and Technology of the Government of IndiaIstituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleate (INFN), ItalyCentro Fermi - Museo Storico della Fisica e Centro Studi e Ricerche "Enrico Fermi", ItalyMEXT Grant-in-Aid for Specially Promoted Research, JapanJoint Institute for Nuclear Research, DubnaNational Research Foundation of Korea (NRF)CONACYT, MexicoDGAPA, MexicoALFA-ECHELEN Program (High-Energy Physics Latin-American-European Network)Stichting voor Fundamenteel Onderzoek der Materie (FOM), NetherlandsNederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (NWO), NetherlandsResearch Council of Norway (NFR)Polish Ministry of Science and Higher EducationNational Authority for Scientific Research - NASR (Autoritatea Nationala pentru Cercetare Stiintifica - ANCS)Ministry of Education and Science of Russian FederationInternational Science and Technology CenterRussian Academy of SciencesRussian Federal Agency of Atomic EnergyRussian Federal Agency for Science and InnovationsCERN-INTASMinistry of Education of SlovakiaDepartment of Science and Technology, South AfricaCIEMAT, CubaEELA, CubaMinisterio de Educacion y Ciencia of Spain, CubaXunta de Galicia (Conselleria de Educacion), CubaCEADEN, CubaCubaenergia, CubaIAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency)Swedish Research Council (VR)Knut & Alice Wallenberg Foundation (KAW)Ukraine Ministry of Education and ScienceUnited Kingdom Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC)The United States Department of EnergyUnited States National Science FoundationState of TexasState of OhioConselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP

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

Femtoscopy of pp collisions at √s=0.9 and 7 TeV at the LHC with two-pion Bose-Einstein correlations

We report on the high statistics two-pion correlation functions from pp collisions at root s = 0.9 TeV and root s = 7 TeV, measured by the ALICE experiment at the Large Hadron Collider. The correlation functions as well as the extracted source radii scale with event multiplicity and pair momentum. When analyzed in the same multiplicity and pair transverse momentum range, the correlation is similar at the two collision energies. A three-dimensional femtoscopic analysis shows an increase of the emission zone with increasing event multiplicity as well as decreasing homogeneity lengths with increasing transverse momentum. The latter trend gets more pronounced as multiplicity increases. This suggests the development of space-momentum correlations, at least for collisions producing a high multiplicity of particles. We consider these trends in the context of previous femtoscopic studies in high-energy hadron and heavy-ion collisions and discuss possible underlying physics mechanisms. Detailed analysis of the correlation reveals an exponential shape in the outward and longitudinal directions, while the sideward remains a Gaussian. This is interpreted as a result of a significant contribution of strongly decaying resonances to the emission region shape. Significant nonfemtoscopic correlations are observed, and are argued to be the consequence of "mini-jet"-like structures extending to low p(t). They are well reproduced by the Monte-Carlo generators and seen also in pi(+)pi(-) correlations

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

We report on the first measurement of the triangular nu(3), quadrangular nu(4), and pentagonal nu(5) charged particle flow in Pb-Pb collisions at root s(NN) = 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 nu(2) and nu(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

D Meson Elliptic Flow in Noncentral Pb-Pb Collisions at root(S)(NN)=2.76 TeV

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)Azimuthally anisotropic distributions of D-0, D+, and D*+ mesons were studied in the central rapidity region (vertical bar y vertical bar < 0.8) in Pb-Pb collisions at a center-of-mass energy root(S)(NN) = 2.76 TeV per nucleon-nucleon collision, with the ALICE detector at the LHC. The second Fourier coefficient upsilon(2) (commonly denoted elliptic flow) was measured in the centrality class 30%-50% as a function of the D meson transverse momentum p(T), in the range 2-16 GeV/c. The measured upsilon(2) of D mesons is comparable in magnitude to that of light-flavor hadrons. It is positive in the range 2 < p(T) < 6 GeV/c with 5.7 sigma significance, based on the combination of statistical and systematic uncertainties.11110State Committee of ScienceWorld Federation of Scientists (WFS)Swiss Fonds Kidagan, ArmeniaConselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)Financiadora de Estudos e Projetos (FINEP)Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC)Chinese Ministry of Education (CMOE)Ministry of Science and Technology of China (MSTC)Ministry of Education and Youth of the Czech RepublicDanish Natural Science Research CouncilCarlsberg FoundationDanish National Research FoundationEuropean Research Council under the European CommunityHelsinki Institute of PhysicsAcademy of FinlandFrench CNRS-IN2P3, FranceRegion Pays de Loire, FranceRegion Alsace, FranceRegion Auvergne, FranceCEA, FranceGerman BMBFHelmholtz AssociationGeneral Secretariat for Research and Technology, Ministry of Development, GreeceHungarian OTKANational Office for Research and Technology (NKTH)Department of Atomic EnergyDepartment of Science and Technology of the Government of IndiaIstituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN)Centro Fermi-Museo Storico della Fisica e Centro Studi e Ricerche 'Enrico Fermi,' ItalyMEXT, JapanJoint Institute for Nuclear Research, DubnaNational Research Foundation of Korea (NRF)CONACYT, MexicoDGAPA, MexicoALFA-ECEPLANET Program (European Particle Physics Latin American Network) Stichting voor Fundamenteel Onderzoek der Materie (FOM), NetherlandsNederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (NWO), NetherlandsResearch Council of Norway (NFR)Polish Ministry of Science and Higher EducationNational Authority for Scientific Research-NASR (Autoritatea Nationala pentru Cercetare Stiintifica-ANCS)Ministry of Education and Science of Russian FederationRussian Academy of SciencesRussian Federal Agency of Atomic EnergyRussian Federal Agency for Science and InnovationsRussian Foundation for Basic ResearchMinistry of Education of SlovakiaDepartment of Science and Technology, South AfricaCIEMATEELAMinisterio de Economia y Competitividad (MINECO) of SpainXunta de Galicia (Conselleria de Educacion)CEADENCubaenergiaCubaIAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency)Swedish Research Council (VR)Knut & Alice Wallenberg Foundation (KAW)Ukraine Ministry of Education and ScienceUnited Kingdom Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC)United States Department of EnergyUnited States National Science FoundationState of TexasState of OhioConselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP