The pseudorapidity density of charged particles ($\mathrm{d}N_\mathrm{ch}/\mathrm{d}\eta$) at mid-rapidity in Pb-Pb collisions has been measured at a center-of-mass energy per nucleon pair of $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}$ = 5.02 TeV. It increases with centrality and reaches a value of $1943 \pm 54$ in $|\eta|<0.5$ for the 5% most central collisions. A rise in $\mathrm{d}N_\mathrm{ch}/\mathrm{d}\eta$ as a function of $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}$ for the most central collisions is observed, steeper than that observed in proton-proton collisions and following the trend established by measurements at lower energy. The centrality dependence of $\mathrm{d}N_\mathrm{ch}/\mathrm{d}\eta$ as a function of the average number of participant nucleons, ${\langle N_\mathrm{part} \rangle}$, calculated in a Glauber model, is compared with the previous measurement at lower energy. A constant factor of about 1.2 describes the increase in $\frac{2}{\langle N_\mathrm{part} \rangle}\langle \mathrm{d}N_\mathrm{ch}/\mathrm{d}\eta \rangle$ from $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}$ = 2.76 TeV to $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}$ = 5.02 TeV for all centrality intervals, within the measured range of 0-80% centrality. The results are also compared to models based on different mechanisms for particle production in nuclear collisions.
We report on the first measurement of an excess in the yield of J/$\psi$ at very low transverse momentum ($p_{\rm T}< 0.3$ GeV/$c$) in peripheral hadronic Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}$ = 2.76 TeV, performed by ALICE at the CERN LHC. Remarkably, the measured nuclear modification factor of J/$\psi$ in the rapidity range $2.5<y<4$ reaches about 7 (2) in the $p_{\rm T}$ range 0-0.3 GeV/$c$ in the 70-90% (50-70%) centrality class. The J/$\psi$ production cross section associated with the observed excess is obtained under the hypothesis that coherent photoproduction of J/$\psi$ is the underlying physics mechanism. If confirmed, the observation of J/$\psi$ coherent photoproduction in Pb-Pb collisions at impact parameters smaller than twice the nuclear radius opens new theoretical and experimental challenges and opportunities. In particular, coherent photoproduction accompanying hadronic collisions may provide insight into the dynamics of photoproduction and nuclear reactions, as well as become a novel probe of the Quark-Gluon Plasma.
The pseudorapidity ($\eta$) and transverse-momentum ($p_{\rm T}$) distributions of charged particles produced in proton-proton collisions are measured at the centre-of-mass energy $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV. The pseudorapidity distribution in $|\eta|<$ 1.8 is reported for inelastic events and for events with at least one charged particle in $|\eta|<$ 1. The pseudorapidity density of charged particles produced in the pseudorapidity region $|\eta|<$ 0.5 is 5.31 $\pm$ 0.18 and 6.46 $\pm$ 0.19 for the two event classes, respectively. The transverse-momentum distribution of charged particles is measured in the range 0.15 $<$ $p_{\rm T}$ $<$ 20 GeV/c and $|\eta|<$ 0.8 for events with at least one charged particle in $|\eta|<$ 1. The correlation between transverse momentum and particle multiplicity is also investigated by studying the evolution of the spectra with event multiplicity. The results are compared with calculations from PYTHIA and EPOS Monte Carlo generators.
The production of beauty hadrons was measured via semi-leptonic decays at mid-rapidity with the ALICE detector at the LHC in the transverse momentum interval $1<p_{\rm T}<8$ GeV/$c$ in minimum-bias p-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}=5.02$ TeV and in $1.3<p_{\rm T}<8$ GeV/$c$ in the 20% most central Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}=2.76$ TeV. The pp reference spectra at $\sqrt{s}=5.02$ TeV and $\sqrt{s}=2.76$ TeV, needed for the calculation of the nuclear modification factors $R_{\rm pPb}$ and $R_{\rm PbPb}$, were obtained by a pQCD-driven scaling of the cross section of electrons from beauty-hadron decays measured at $\sqrt{s}=7$ TeV. In the $p_{\rm T}$ interval $3<p_{\rm T}<8$ GeV/$c$ a suppression of the yield of electrons from beauty-hadron decays is observed in Pb-Pb compared to pp collisions. Towards lower $p_{\rm T}$, the $R_{\rm PbPb}$ values increase with large systematic uncertainties. The $R_{\rm pPb}$ is consistent with unity within systematic uncertainties and is well described by theoretical calculations that include cold nuclear matter effects in p-Pb collisions. The measured $R_{\rm pPb}$ and these calculations indicate that cold nuclear matter effects are small at high transverse momentum also in Pb-Pb collisions. Therefore, the observed reduction of $R_{\rm PbPb}$ below unity at high $p_{\rm T}$ may be ascribed to an effect of the hot and dense medium formed in Pb-Pb collisions.
Two-particle angular correlations between unidentified charged trigger and associated particles are measured by the ALICE detector in p-Pb collisions at a nucleon-nucleon centre-of-mass energy of 5.02 TeV. The transverse-momentum range 0.7 $ < p_{\rm{T}, assoc} < p_{\rm{T}, trig} <$ 5.0 GeV/$c$ is examined, to include correlations induced by jets originating from low momen\-tum-transfer scatterings (minijets). The correlations expressed as associated yield per trigger particle are obtained in the pseudorapidity range $|\eta|<0.9$. The near-side long-range pseudorapidity correlations observed in high-multiplicity p-Pb collisions are subtracted from both near-side short-range and away-side correlations in order to remove the non-jet-like components. The yields in the jet-like peaks are found to be invariant with event multiplicity with the exception of events with low multiplicity. This invariance is consistent with the particles being produced via the incoherent fragmentation of multiple parton--parton scatterings, while the yield related to the previously observed ridge structures is not jet-related. The number of uncorrelated sources of particle production is found to increase linearly with multiplicity, suggesting no saturation of the number of multi-parton interactions even in the highest multiplicity p-Pb collisions. Further, the number scales in the intermediate multiplicity region with the number of binary nucleon-nucleon collisions estimated with a Glauber Monte-Carlo simulation.
A detailed study of pseudorapidity densities and multiplicity distributions of primary charged particles produced in proton-proton collisions, at $\sqrt{s} =$ 0.9, 2.36, 2.76, 7 and 8 TeV, in the pseudorapidity range $|\eta|<2$, was carried out using the ALICE detector. Measurements were obtained for three event classes: inelastic, non-single diffractive and events with at least one charged particle in the pseudorapidity interval $|\eta|<1$. The use of an improved track-counting algorithm combined with ALICE's measurements of diffractive processes allows a higher precision compared to our previous publications. A KNO scaling study was performed in the pseudorapidity intervals $|\eta|<$ 0.5, 1.0 and 1.5. The data are compared to other experimental results and to models as implemented in Monte Carlo event generators PHOJET and recent tunes of PYTHIA6, PYTHIA8 and EPOS.
Multiplicity distribution in the pseudorapidity region -0.5 to 0.5 for INEL collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 7000 GeV. Note that the uncertainties are strongly correlated between neighbouring points. See the paper text for details.
We report on the measurement of freeze-out radii for pairs of identical-charge pions measured in Pb--Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}=2.76$ TeV as a function of collision centrality and the average transverse momentum of the pair $k_{\rm T}$. Three-dimensional sizes of the system (femtoscopic radii), as well as direction-averaged one-dimensional radii are extracted. The radii decrease with $k_{\rm T}$, following a power-law behavior. This is qualitatively consistent with expectations from a collectively expanding system, produced in hydrodynamic calculations. The radii also scale linearly with $\left< \mathrm{d}N_{\rm ch}/\mathrm{d}\eta \right>^{1/3}$. This behaviour is compared to world data on femtoscopic radii in heavy-ion collisions. While the dependence is qualitatively similar to results at smaller $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}$, a decrease in the $R_{\rm out}/R_{\rm side}$ ratio is seen, which is in qualitative agreement with specific predictions from hydrodynamic models. The results provide further evidence for the production of a collective, strongly coupled system in heavy-ion collisions at the LHC.
In this Letter, the ALICE Collaboration presents the first measurements of the charged-particle multiplicity density, $\rm{d}N_{\rm{ch}}/\rm{d}\eta$, and total charged-particle multiplicity, $N_{\rm{ch}}^{\rm{tot}}$, in Xe-Xe collisions at a centre-of-mass energy per nucleon--nucleon pair of $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}$ = 5.44 TeV. The measurements are performed as a function of collision centrality over a wide pseudorapidity range of $-3.5 < \eta < 5$. The values of $\rm{d}N_{\rm{ch}}/\rm{d}\eta$ at mid-rapidity and $N_{\rm{ch}}^{\rm{tot}}$ for central collisions, normalised to the number of nucleons participating in the collision ($N_{\rm{part}}$) as a function of $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}$, follow the trends established in previous heavy-ion measurements. The same quantities are also found to increase as a function of $N_{\rm{part}}$, and up to the 10% most central collisions the trends are the same as the ones observed in Pb-Pb at a similar energy. For more central collisions, the Xe-Xe scaled multiplicities exceed those in Pb-Pb for a similar $N_{\rm{part}}$. The results are compared to phenomenological models and theoretical calculations based on different mechanisms for particle production in nuclear collisions. All considered models describe the data reasonably well within 20%.
Recent measurements of charm-baryon production in hadronic collisions have questioned the universality of charm-quark fragmentation across different collision systems. In this work the fragmentation of charm quarks into charm baryons is probed, by presenting the first measurement of the longitudinal jet momentum fraction carried by $\Lambda_{\rm c}^{+}$ baryons, $z^{\mathrm{ch}}_\mathrm{||}$, in hadronic collisions. The results are obtained in proton-proton (pp) collisions at $\sqrt{s}=13$ TeV at the LHC, with $\Lambda_{\rm c}^{+}$ baryons and charged (track-based) jets reconstructed in the transverse momentum intervals of $3 \leq p_{\rm T}^{\Lambda_{\rm c}^{+}} < 15$ GeV/$c$ and $7 \leq p_{\rm T}^{\rm jet\;ch} < 15$ GeV/$c$, respectively. The $z^{\mathrm{ch}}_\mathrm{||}$ distribution is compared to a measurement of ${\rm D}^0$-tagged charged jets in pp collisions as well as to PYTHIA 8 simulations. The data hints that the fragmentation of charm quarks into charm baryons is softer with respect to charm mesons, in the measured kinematic interval, as predicted by hadronisation models which include colour correlations beyond leading-colour in the string formation.
The production of prompt $D^{0}$, $D^{+}_{\rm s}$, and $\Lambda_{\rm c}^{+}$ hadrons, and their ratios, $D^{+}_{\rm s}$/$D^{0}$ and $\Lambda_{\rm c}^{+}$/$D^{0}$, are measured in proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV at midrapidity ($|y| <0.5$) with the ALICE detector at the LHC. The measurements are performed as a function of the charm-hadron transverse momentum ($p_{\rm T}$) in intervals of charged-particle multiplicity, measured with two multiplicity estimators covering different pseudorapidity regions. While the strange to non-strange $D^{+}_{\rm s}$/$D^{0}$ ratio indicates no significant multiplicity dependence, the baryon-to-meson $p_{\rm T}$-differential $\Lambda_{\rm c}^{+}$/$D^{0}$ ratio shows a multiplicity-dependent enhancement, with a significance of 5.3$\sigma$ for $1< p_{\rm T} < 12$ GeV/$c$, comparing the highest multiplicity interval with respect to the lowest one. The measurements are compared with a theoretical model that explains the multiplicity dependence by a canonical treatment of quantum charges in the statistical hadronisation approach, and with predictions from event generators that implement colour reconnection mechanisms beyond the leading colour approximation to model the hadronisation process. The $\Lambda_{\rm c}^{+}$/$D^{0}$ ratios as a function of $p_{\rm T}$ present a similar shape and magnitude as the $\Lambda/K^{0}_{s}$ ratios in comparable multiplicity intervals, suggesting a potential common mechanism for light- and charm-hadron formation, with analogous multiplicity dependence. The $p_{\rm T}$-integrated ratios, extrapolated down to $p_{\rm T}$=0, do not show a significant dependence on multiplicity within the uncertainties.