Measurements of the sphericity of primary charged particles in minimum bias proton--proton collisions at $\sqrt{s}=0.9$, 2.76 and 7 TeV with the ALICE detector at the LHC are presented. The observable is linearized to be collinear safe and is measured in the plane perpendicular to the beam direction using primary charged tracks with $p_{\rm T}\geq0.5$ GeV/c in $|\eta|\leq0.8$. The mean sphericity as a function of the charged particle multiplicity at mid-rapidity ($N_{\rm ch}$) is reported for events with different $p_{\rm T}$ scales ("soft" and "hard") defined by the transverse momentum of the leading particle. In addition, the mean charged particle transverse momentum versus multiplicity is presented for the different event classes, and the sphericity distributions in bins of multiplicity are presented. The data are compared with calculations of standard Monte Carlo event generators. The transverse sphericity is found to grow with multiplicity at all collision energies, with a steeper rise at low $N_{\rm ch}$, whereas the event generators show the opposite tendency. The combined study of the sphericity and the mean $p_{\rm T}$ with multiplicity indicates that most of the tested event generators produce events with higher multiplicity by generating more back-to-back jets resulting in decreased sphericity (and isotropy). The PYTHIA6 generator with tune PERUGIA-2011 exhibits a noticeable improvement in describing the data, compared to the other tested generators.
The yields of the K*(892)$^{0}$ and $\Phi$(1020) resonances are measured in Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}$ = 2.76 TeV through their hadronic decays using the ALICE detector. The measurements are performed in multiple centrality intervals at mid-rapidity (|$y$|<0.5) in the transverse-momentum ranges 0.3 < $p_{\rm T}$ < 5 GeV/$c$ for the K*(892)$^{0}$ and 0.5 < $p_{\rm T}$ < 5 GeV/$c$ for the $\Phi$(1020). The yields of K*(892)$^{0}$ are suppressed in central Pb-Pb collisions with respect to pp and peripheral Pb-Pb collisions (perhaps due to rescattering of its decay products in the hadronic medium), while the longer lived $\Phi$(1020) meson is not suppressed. These particles are also used as probes to study the mechanisms of particle production. The shape of the $p_{\rm T}$ distribution of the $\Phi$(1020) meson, but not its yield, is reproduced fairly well by hydrodynamic models for central Pb-Pb collisions. In central Pb-Pb collisions at low and intermediate $p_{\rm T}$, the p/$\Phi$(1020) ratio is flat in $p_{\rm T}$, while the p/$\pi$ and $\Phi$(1020)/$\pi$ ratios show a pronounced increase and have similar shapes to each other. These results indicate that the shapes of the $p_{\rm T}$ distributions of these particles in central Pb-Pb collisions are determined predominantly by the particle masses and radial flow. Finally, $\Phi$(1020) production in Pb-Pb collisions is enhanced, with respect to the yield in pp collisions and the yield of charged pions, by an amount similar to the $\Lambda$ and $\Xi$.
The average transverse momentum $\langle p_{\rm T}\rangle$ versus the charged-particle multiplicity $N_{\rm ch}$ was measured in p-Pb collisions at a collision energy per nucleon-nucleon pair $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}=5.02$ TeV and in pp collisions at collision energies of $\sqrt{s}=0.9$, 2.76, and 7 TeV in the kinematic range $0.15<p_{\rm T}<10.0$ GeV/$c$ and $|\eta|<0.3$ with the ALICE apparatus at the LHC. These data are compared to results in Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}=2.76$ TeV at similar charged-particle multiplicities. In pp and p-Pb collisions, a strong increase of $\langle p_{\rm T}\rangle$ with $N_{\rm ch}$ is observed, which is much stronger than that measured in Pb-Pb collisions. For pp collisions, this could be attributed, within a model of hadronizing strings, to multiple-parton interactions and to a final-state color reconnection mechanism. The data in p-Pb and Pb-Pb collisions cannot be described by an incoherent superposition of nucleon-nucleon collisions and pose a challenge to most of the event generators.
In this Letter, comprehensive results on ${\rm\pi}^\pm$, K$^\pm$, K$^0_S$, p, $\rm\bar{p}$, $\rm \Lambda$ and $\rm \bar{\Lambda}$ production at mid-rapidity ($0 < y_{\rm cms} < 0.5$) in p-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}} = 5.02$ 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 $p_{\rm T}$ distributions are compared to results at lower energy and with predictions based on QCD-inspired and hydrodynamic models.
A measurement of the underlying event (UE) activity in proton-proton collisions is performed using events with charged-particle jets produced in the central pseudorapidity region (abs(eta[jet]) < 2) and with transverse momentum 1<= pt[jet] < 100 GeV. The analysis uses a data sample collected at a centre-of-mass energy of 2.76 TeV with the CMS experiment at the LHC. The UE activity is measured as a function of pt[jet] in terms of the average multiplicity and scalar sum of transverse momenta (pt) of charged particles, with abs(eta) < 2 and pt > 0.5 GeV, in the azimuthal region transverse to the highest pt jet direction. By further dividing the transverse region into two regions of smaller and larger activity, various components of the UE activity are separated. The measurements are compared to previous results at 0.9 and 7 TeV, and to predictions of several Monte Carlo event generators, providing constraints on the modelling of the UE dynamics.
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