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%.
The correlations of identical charged kaons were measured in p-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}=5.02$ TeV by the ALICE experiment at the LHC. The femtoscopic invariant radii and correlation strengths were extracted from one-dimensional kaon correlation functions and were compared with those obtained in pp and Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s}=7$ TeV and $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}=2.76$ TeV, respectively. The presented results also complement the identical-pion femtoscopic data published by the ALICE collaboration. The extracted radii increase with increasing charged-particle multiplicity and decrease with increasing pair transverse momentum. At comparable multiplicities, the radii measured in p-Pb collisions are found to be close to those observed in pp collisions. The obtained femtoscopic parameters are reproduced by the EPOS 3 hadronic interaction model and disfavor models with large initial size or strong collective expansion at low multiplicities.
Correlations among conserved quantum numbers, such as the net-electric charge, the net-baryon, and the net-strangeness in heavy-ion collisions, are crucial for exploring the QCD phase diagram. In this letter, these correlations are investigated using net-proton number (as a proxy for the net-baryon), net-kaon number (for the net-strangeness), and net-charged particle number in Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_\text{NN}}=5.02$ TeV with the ALICE detector. The observed correlations deviate from the Poissonian baseline, with a more pronounced deviation at LHC energies than at RHIC. Theoretical calculations of the Thermal-FIST hadron resonance gas model, HIJING, and EPOS LHC event generators are compared with experimental results, where a significant impact of resonance decays is observed. Thermal-FIST calculations under the grand canonical and canonical ensembles highlight significant differences, underscoring the role of local charge conservation in explaining the data. Recent lattice QCD studies have demonstrated that the magnetic field generated by spectator protons in heavy-ion collisions affects susceptibility ratios, in particular those related to the net-electric charge and the net-baryon numbers. The experimental findings are in qualitative agreement with the expectations of lattice QCD.
First results on K/$\pi$, p/$\pi$ and K/p fluctuations are obtained with the ALICE detector at the CERN LHC as a function of centrality in Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}=2.76$ TeV. The observable $\nu_{\rm dyn}$, which is defined in terms of the moments of particle multiplicity distributions, is used to quantify the magnitude of dynamical fluctuations of relative particle yields and also provides insight into the correlation between particle pairs. This study is based on a novel experimental technique, called the Identity Method, which allows one to measure the moments of multiplicity distributions in case of incomplete particle identification. The results for p/$\pi$ show a change of sign in $\nu_{\rm dyn}$ from positive to negative towards more peripheral collisions. For central collisions, the results follow the smooth trend of the data at lower energies and $\nu_{\rm dyn}$ exhibits a change in sign for p/$\pi$ and K/p.
This paper presents a study of the inclusive forward J/$\psi$ yield as a function of forward charged-particle multiplicity in pp collisions at $\sqrt{s} = 13$ TeV using data collected by the ALICE experiment at the CERN LHC. The results are presented in terms of relative J/$\psi$ yields and relative charged-particle multiplicities with respect to these quantities obtained in inelastic collisions having at least one charged particle in the pseudorapidity range $|\eta| < 1$. The J/$\psi$ mesons are reconstructed via their decay into $\mu^+ \mu^-$ pairs in the forward rapidity region ($2.5 < y < 4$). The relative multiplicity is estimated in the forward pseudorapidity range $-3.7 < \eta < -1.7$, which overlaps with the J/$\psi$ rapidity region. The results show a steeper-than-linear increase of the J/$\psi$ yields versus the multiplicity. They are compared with previous measurements and theoretical model calculations.
The transverse structure of jets was studied via jet fragmentation transverse momentum ($j_{\rm{T}}$) distributions, obtained using two-particle correlations in proton-proton and proton-lead collisions, measured with the ALICE experiment at the LHC. The highest transverse momentum particle in each event is used as the trigger particle and the region $3 < p_{\rm{Tt}} < 15$ GeV/$c$ is explored in this study. The measured distributions show a clear narrow Gaussian component and a wide non-Gaussian one. Based on Pythia simulations, the narrow component can be related to non-perturbative hadronization and the wide component to quantum chromodynamical splitting. The width of the narrow component shows a weak dependence on the transverse momentum of the trigger particle, in agreement with the expectation of universality of the hadronization process. On the other hand, the width of the wide component shows a rising trend suggesting increased branching for higher transverse momentum. The results obtained in pp collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 7 TeV and in p-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm{NN}}}$ = 5.02 TeV are compatible within uncertainties and hence no significant cold nuclear matter effects are observed. The results are compared to previous measurements from CCOR and PHENIX as well as to Pythia 8 and Herwig 7 simulations.
Transverse-momentum ($p_{\rm T}$) differential yields of electrons from semileptonic heavy-flavour hadron decays have been measured in the most central (0-10%) and in semi-central (20-40%) Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}} = 2.76$ TeV. The corresponding production cross section in pp collisions has been measured at the same energy with substantially reduced systematic uncertainties with respect to previously published results. The modification of the yield in Pb-Pb collisions with respect to the expectation from an incoherent superposition of nucleon-nucleon collisions is quantified at mid-rapidity ($|y|$ $<$ 0.8) in the $p_{\rm T}$ interval 0.5-3 GeV/$c$ via the nuclear modification factor, $R_{\rm AA}$. This paper extends the $p_{\rm T}$ reach of the $R_{\rm AA}$ measurement towards significantly lower values with respect to a previous publication. In Pb-Pb collisions the $p_{\rm T}$-differential measurements of yields at low $p_{\rm T}$ are essential to investigate the scaling of heavy-flavour production with the number of binary nucleon-nucleon collisions. Heavy-quark hadronization, a collective expansion and even initial-state effects, such as the nuclear modification of the Parton Distribution Functions, are also expected to have a significant effect on the measured distribution.
Two-particle correlations in high-energy collision experiments enable the extraction of particle source radii by using the Bose-Einstein enhancement of pion production at low relative momentum $q\propto 1/R$. It was previously observed that in $\rm{p}\rm{p}$ collisions at $\sqrt{s}=7$ TeV the average pair transverse momentum $k_{\rm T}$ range of such analyses is limited due to large background correlations which were attributed to mini-jet phenomena. To investigate this further, an event-shape dependent analysis of Bose-Einstein correlations for pion pairs is performed in this work. By categorizing the events by their transverse sphericity $S_{\rm T}$ into spherical $(S_\textrm{T}>0.7)$ and jet-like $(S_\textrm{T}<0.3)$ events a method was developed that allows for the determination of source radii for much larger values of $k_{\rm T}$ for the first time. Spherical events demonstrate little or no background correlations while jet-like events are dominated by them. This observation agrees with the hypothesis of a mini-jet origin of the non-femtoscopic background correlations and gives new insight into the physics interpretation of the $k_{\rm T}$ dependence of the radii. The emission source size in spherical events shows a substantially diminished $k_{\rm T}$ dependence, while jet-like events show indications of a negative trend with respect to $k_{\rm T}$ in the highest multiplicity events. Regarding the emission source shape, the correlation functions for both event sphericity classes show good agreement with an exponential shape, rather than a Gaussian one.
Inclusive J/$\psi$ production is studied in p-Pb interactions at a centre-of-mass energy per nucleon-nucleon collision $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}=8.16$ TeV, using the ALICE detector at the CERN LHC. The J/$\psi$ meson is reconstructed, via its decay to a muon pair, in the centre-of-mass rapidity intervals $2.03<y_{\rm {cms}}<3.53$ and $-4.46<y_{\rm {cms}}<-2.96$, where positive and negative $y_{\rm {cms}}$ refer to the p-going and Pb-going direction, respectively. The transverse momentum coverage is $p_{\rm T}<20$ GeV/$c$. In this paper, $y_{\rm cms}$- and $p_{\rm T}$-differential cross sections for inclusive J/$\psi$ production are presented, and the corresponding nuclear modification factors $R_{\rm pPb}$ are shown. Forward results show a suppression of the J/$\psi$ yield with respect to pp collisions, concentrated in the region $p_{\rm T}\lesssim 5$ GeV/$c$. At backward rapidity no significant suppression is observed. The results are compared to previous measurements by ALICE in p-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}=5.02$ TeV and to theoretical calculations. Finally, the ratios $R_{\rm FB}$ between forward- and backward-$y_{\rm {cms}}$ $R_{\rm pPb}$ values are shown and discussed.
Inclusive J/$\psi$ production is studied in minimum-bias proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of $\sqrt{s}$ = 5.02 TeV by ALICE at the CERN LHC. The measurement is performed at mid-rapidity ($|y| < 0.9$) in the dielectron decay channel down to zero transverse momentum $p_{\rm T}$, using a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of $L_{\rm int} = 19.4 \pm$ 0.4 nb$^{-1}$. The measured $p_{\rm T}$-integrated inclusive J/$\psi$ production cross section is d$\sigma$/d$y$ = 5.64 $\pm$ 0.22 (stat.) $\pm 0.33$ (syst.) $\pm 0.12$ (lumi.) $\mu$b. The $p_{\rm T}$-differential cross section d$^{2} \sigma$/d$p_{\rm T}$d$y$ is measured in the $p_{\rm T}$ range 0$-$10 GeV/$c$ and compared with state-of-the-art perturbative QCD calculations. The J/$\psi$ $\langle p_{\rm T} \rangle$ and $\langle p_{\rm T}^{2} \rangle$ are extracted and compared with results obtained at other collision energies.
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