Measurement of dielectron production in central Pb-Pb collisions at sNN =2.76 TeV

The first measurement of dielectron (e(+)e(-)) production in central (0-10\%) Pb-Pb collisions at root S-NN = 2.76 TeV at the LHC is presented. The dielectron invariant-mass spectrum is compared to the expected contributions from hadron decays in the invariant-mass range 0 < m(ee) < 3.5 GeV/c(2). The ratio of data and the cocktail of hadronic contributions without vacuum rho(0) is measured in the invariant-mass range 0.15 < m(ee) < 0.7 GeV/c(2), where an excess of dielectrons is observed in other experiments, and its value is 1.40 +/- 0.28 (stat.) +/- 0.08 (syst.) +/- 0.27 (cocktail). The dielectron spectrum measured in the invariant mass range 0 < m(ee) < 1 GeV/c(2) is consistent with the predictions from two theoretical model calculations that include thermal dielectron production from both partonic and hadronic phases with in-medium broadened rho(0) meson. The fraction of direct virtual photons over inclusive virtual photons is extracted for dielectron pairs with invariant mass 0.1 < m(ee) < 0.3 GeV/c(2) and in the transverse-momentum intervals 1 <( )p(T,ee) < 2 GeV/c and 2 < p(T,ee) < 4 GeV/c. The measured fraction of virtual direct photons is consistent with the measurement of real direct photons by ALICE and with the expectations from previous dielectron measurements at RHIC within the experimental uncertainties

Higher moment fluctuations of identified particle distributions from ALICE

Cumulants of conserved charges fluctuations are regarded as a potential tool to study the criticality in the QCD phase diagram and to determine the freeze-out parameters in a model-independent way. At LHC energies, the measurements of the ratio of the net-baryon (net-proton) cumulants can be used to test the lattice QCD predictions. In this work, we present the first measurements of cumulants of the net-proton number distributions up to 4th order in Pb-Pb collisions at root s(NN) = 2.76 and 5.02 TeV as a function of collision centrality. We compare our cumulant ratios results with the STAR experiment net-proton results measured in the first phase of the Beam Energy Scan program at RHIC. The results can be used to obtain the chemical freeze-out parameters at LHC

Investigating correlated fluctuations of conserved charges with net-A fluctuations in Pb-Pb collisions at ALICE

Event-by-event fluctuations of conserved charges such as electric charge, strangeness, and baryon number - in ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions provide insight into the properties of the quark-gluon plasma and the QCD phase diagram. They can be related to the higher moments of the multiplicity distributions of identified particles, such as the A baryon which carries both strangeness and baryon number and is thus of particular interest. We present the first measurement of net-A fluctuations in Pb-Pb collisions at root s(NN)=5.02 TeV as a function of centrality and the pseudorapidity acceptance of the measurement. The results are compared to expectations of the effects of global baryon number conservation as well as to predictions from the HIJING Monte Carlo event generator. In this analysis the Identity Method is applied in a novel way to account for the combinatoric background in the invariant mass distribution

Measurements of the chiral magnetic effect in Pb-Pb collisions with ALICE

We present the measurement of the charge-dependent 3-particle azimuthal correlation for unidentified charged particles in Pb-Pb collisions at root S-NN = 5.02 TeV in ALICE. The results are compared with corresponding results from Pb-Pb collisions at root S-NN = 2.76 TeV. We observe no significant difference in the charge-sensitive 3-particle correlator (gamma(112)) between the two collision energies. Charged-dependent mixed-harmonic correlator (gamma(132)) is also presented and compared with the predictions from a blast-wave model incorporating local charge conservation

Exploring jet profiles in Pb-Pb collisions at 5.02 TeV with the ALICE detector

In this contribution, we present measurements of inclusive jet production with the ALICE detector in Pb-Pb collisions at root s(NN) = 5.02 TeV. Production cross sections of charged particle jets and fully reconstructed jets are measured with jet resolution parameters R = 0.2 and 0.3. To quantify the medium induced parton energy loss, jet nuclear modification factors (R-AA) are measured by utilizing POWHEG+Pythia8 predictions as reference cross section in pp collisions. We also calculate the ratio of jet production cross sections for jets reconstructed with different cone radii to explore the jet radial profile in Pb-Pb collisions. The ratios of jet cross sections are compared to a pp reference predicted by POWHEG+Pythia8 and in-medium energy loss model prediction by the JEWEL Monte Carlo event generator

Measuring (KSK +/-)-K-0 interactions using pp collisions at root s=7 TeV

We present the first measurements of femtoscopic correlations between the K-S(0) and K-+/- particles in pp collisions at root s = 7 TeV measured by the ALICE experiment. The observed femtoscopic correlations are consistent with final-state interactions proceeding solely via the a(0)(980) resonance. The extracted kaon source radius and correlation strength parameters for (KSK-)-K-0 are found to be equal within the experimental uncertainties to those for (KSK+)-K-0. Results of the present study are compared with those from identical-kaon femtoscopic studies also performed with pp collisions at root s = 7 TeV by ALICE and with a (KSK +/-)-K-0 measurement in Pb-Pb collisions at root s(NN) = 2.76 TeV. Combined with the Pb-Pb results, our pp analysis is found to be compatible with the interpretation of the a (980) having a tetraquark structure instead of that of a diquark. (C) 2018 Published by Elsevier B.V.Peer reviewe

Muon physics at forward rapidity with the ALICE detector upgrade

ALICE is the experiment specifically designed to study the Quark-Gluon Plasma (QGP) in heavy-ion collisions at the CERN LHC. The ALICE detector will be upgraded during the Long Shutdown 2, planned for 2019-2020, in order to cope with the maximum interaction rate of 50 kHz of Pb-Pb collisions foreseen for Runs 3 and 4. The ambitious programme of high-precision measurements, expected for muon physics after 2020, requires an upgrade of the front-end and readout electronics of the existing Muon Spectrometer. This concerns the Cathode Pad Chambers (CPC) used for tracking and the Resistive Plate Chambers (RPC) used for triggering and for muon identification. The Muon Forward Tracker (MFT), an internal tracker added in front of the front absorber of the existing Muon Spectrometer, is also part of the ALICE detector upgrade programme. It is based on an assembly of circular planes made of Monolithic Active Pixel Sensors (MAPS), covering the pseudorapidity range 2.5 < eta < 3.6. The MFT will improve present measurements and enable new ones. A selection of results from physics performance studies will be presented, together with an overview of the technical aspects of the upgrade project

Spin alignment measurements using vector mesons with ALICE detector at the LHC

We present new measurements related to spin alignment of K*(0) vector mesons at mid-rapidity for Pb-Pb collisions at root s(NN) = 2.76 and 5.02 TeV. The spin alignment measurements are carried out with respect to production plane and 2nd order event plane. At low p(T) the spin density matrix element rho(00) for K*(0) is found to have values slightly below 1/3, while it is consistent with 1/3, i.e. no spin alignment, at high p(T). Similar values of rho(00) are observed with respect to both production plane and event plane. Within statistical and systematic uncertainties, rho(00) values are also found to be independent of root s(NN). rho(00) also shows centrality dependence with maximum deviation from 1/3 for mid-central collisions with respect to both the kinematic planes. The measurements for K*(0) in pp collisions at root s = 13 TeV and for K-s(0) (a spin 0 hadron) in 20-40\% central Pb-Pb collisions at root s(NN) = 2.76 TeV are consistent with no spin alignment

Non-linear flow modes of identified particles in Pb-Pb collisions at √sNN = 5.02 TeV

The pT-differential non-linear flow modes, v4,22, v5,32, v6,33 and v6,222 for π±, K±, K0 S, p + p, Λ + Λ and φ-meson have been measured for the first time at √sNN = 5.02 TeV in Pb-Pb collisions with the ALICE detector at the Large Hadron Collider. The results were obtained with a multi-particle technique, correlating the identified hadrons with reference charged particles from a different pseudorapidity region. These non-linear observables probe the contribution from the second and third order initial spatial anisotropy coefficients to higher flow harmonics. All the characteristic features observed in previous pT-differential anisotropic flow measurements for various particle species are also present in the non-linear flow modes, i.e. increase of magnitude with increasing centrality percentile, mass ordering at low pT and particle type grouping in the intermediate pT range. Hydrodynamical calculations (iEBE-VISHNU) that use different initial conditions and values of shear and bulk viscosity to entropy density ratios are confronted with the data at low transverse momenta. These calculations exhibit a better agreement with the anisotropic flow coefficients than the non-linear flow modes. These observations indicate that non-linear flow modes can provide additional discriminatory power in the study of initial conditions as well as new stringent constraints to hydrodynamical calculations

Direct photon elliptic flow in Pb-Pb collisions at root s(NN)=2.76 TeV

The elliptic flow of inclusive and direct photons was measured at mid-rapidity in two centrality classes 0-20% and 20-40% in Pb-Pb collisions at root s(NN) = 2.76 TeV by ALICE. Photons were detected with the highly segmented electromagnetic calorimeter PHOS and via conversions in the detector material with the e(broken vertical bar)e pairs reconstructed in the central tracking system. The results of the two methods were combined and the direct-photon elliptic flow was extracted in the transverse momentum range 0.9 < p(T) < 6.2 GeV/c. A comparison to RHIC data shows a similar magnitude of the measured direct-photon elliptic flow. Hydrodynamic and transport model calculations are systematically lower than the data, but are found to be compatible. (C) 2018 The Author. Published by Elsevier B.V.Peer reviewe