Heavy-ion physics at the LHC

A color-deconfined state of strongly interacting matter is expected to be formed in high-energy collisions of heavy nuclei. Lattice Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) calculations predicts that, under the conditions of high-energy density and temperature reached in these collisions, a phase transition to a Quark-Gluon Plasma (QGP) occurs. The main aim of the heavy-ion experimental programme at the LHC collider is to characterize and study the medium formed in such collisions. In this paper several observables and measurements performed by the LHC experiments studying heavy-ion collisions will be addressed, compared to results at lower energy and discussed

Measurement of the electromagnetic dissociation cross section of Pb nuclei at sNN\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}} = 2.76 TeV

Electromagnetic dissociation of heavy nuclei in ultra-peripheral interactions at high energies can be used to monitor the beam luminosity at colliders. In ALICE neutrons emitted by the excited nuclei close to beam rapidity are detected by the Zero Degree Calorimeters (ZDCs), providing a precise measurement of the event rate. During the 2010 Pb run, a dedicated data taking was performed triggering on electromagnetic processes with the ZDCs. These data, combined with the results from a Van der Meer scan, allowed to measure the electromagnetic dissociation cross-section of Pb nuclei at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}$~=~2.76~TeV. Experimental results on various cross-sections are presented together with a comparison to the available predictions.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Bulk Properties of Pb-Pb collisions at sqrt(sNN) = 2.76 TeV measured by ALICE

Global variables, such as the charged particle multiplicity and the transverse energy are important observables to characterize Relativistic Heavy Ion collisions and to constrain model calculations. The charged particle multiplicity dNch/deta and transverse energy dET/deta are measured at sqrt(sNN) = 2.76 TeV in Pb-Pb collisions as a function of centrality and in pp collisions. The fraction of inelastic cross section seen by the ALICE detector is calculated either using a Glauber model or the data corrected by simulations of nuclear and electromagnetic processes, or data collected with a minimum bias interaction trigger. The centrality, defined by the number of nucleons participating in the collision, is obtained, via the Glauber model, by relating the multiplicity distributions of various detectors in the ALICE Central Barrel and their correlation with the spectator energy measured by the Zero-Degree Calorimeters. The results are compared to corresponding results obtained at the significantly lower energies of the BNL AGS, the CERN SPS, and the BNL RHIC, and with models based on different mechanisms for particle production in nuclear collisions. Particular emphasis will be given to a discussion on systematic studies of the dependence of the centrality determination on the details of the Glauber model, and the validity of the Glauber model at unprecedented collision energies.Comment: Proceedings of the XXII International Conference on Ultrarelativistic Nucleus-Nucleus Collisions Quark Matter 2011, submitted to J. Phys. G: Nucl. Part. Phys. 8 pages, 7 (multi)figure

Channeler Ant Model: 3D segmentation of medical images through ant colonies

In this paper the Channeler Ant Model (CAM) and some results of its applications to the analysis of medical images are described. The CAM is an algorithm able to segment 3D structures with different shapes, intensity and background. It makes use of virtual ant colonies and exploits their natural capabilities to modify the environment and communicate with each other by pheromone deposition. Its performance has been validated with the segmentation of 3D artificial objects and it has been already used successfully in lung nodules detection on Computer Tomography images. This work tries to evaluate the CAM as a candidate to solve the quantitative segmentation problem in Magnetic Resonance brain images: to evaluate the percentage of white matter, gray matter and cerebrospinal fluid in each voxel

Study of dimuon production in Indium-Indium collisions with the NA60 experiment

The NA60 experiment at the CERN-SPS is devoted to the study of dimuon production in heavy-ion and proton-nucleus collisions. We present preliminary results from the analysis of Indium-Indium collisions at 158 GeV per nucleon. The topics covered are low mass vector meson production, J/psi production and suppression, and the feasibility of the open charm measurement from the dimuon continuum in the mass range below the J/psi peak.Comment: Contribution at XXXXth Rencontres de Moriond, "QCD and High Energy Hadronic Interactions

First results from the NA60 experiment at CERN

Since 1986, several heavy ion experiments have studied some signatures of the formation of the quark-gluon plasma and a few exciting results have been found. However, some important questions are still unanswered and require new measurements. The NA60 experiment, with a new detector concept that vastly improves dimuon detection in proton-nucleus and heavy-ion collisions, studies several of those open questions, including the production of open charm. This paper presents the experiment and some first results from data collected in 2002.Comment: Paper presented at the XXXVIII Rencontres de Moriond, QCD and High Energy Hadronic Interactions, Les Arcs, March 22-29, 2003. 4 pages, 6 figure

ϕ\phi Meson Production in In-In Collisions and the ϕ\phi Puzzle

The NA60 experiment measured dimuon production in In-In collisions at 158 AGeV. This paper presents a high statistics measurement of $\phi\to\mu\mu$ with the specific objective to provide insight on the $\phi$ puzzle, i.e. the difference in the inverse $T$ slopes and absolute yields measured by NA49 and NA50 in the kaon and lepton channel, respectively. Transverse momentum distributions were studied as a function of centrality. The slope parameter $T$ shows a rapid increase with centrality, followed by a saturation. Variations of $T$ with the fit range of the order of 15 MeV were observed, possibly as a consequence of radial flow. The $\phi$ meson yield normalized to the number of participants increases with centrality and is consistently higher than the yield measured by the NA49 experiment at any centrality.Comment: 4 Pages, 2 Figures. Proceedings of the 20$^{th}$ International Conference on Ultra-Relativistic Nucleus Nucleus Collision