Correlations induced by quantum statistics are sensitive to the spatio-temporal extent as well as dynamics of particle emitting sources in heavy-ion collisions. In addition, such correlations can be used to search for the presence of a coherent component of pion production. Two and three-pion correlations of same and mixed-charge are measured at low relative momentum to estimate the coherent fraction of charged pions in Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}=2.76$ TeV at the LHC with ALICE. The genuine three-pion quantum statistics correlation is found to be suppressed relative to the two-pion correlation based on the assumption of fully chaotic pion emission. The suppression is observed to decrease with triplet momentum. The observed suppression at low triplet momentum may correspond to a coherent fraction in charged pion emission of 23% $\pm$ 8%.
We report measurement of the cross section of $e^+e^-\to \pi^+\pi^-\psi(2S)$ between 4.0 and $5.5 {\rm GeV}$, based on an analysis of initial state radiation events in a $980 \rm fb^{-1}$ data sample recorded with the Belle detector. The properties of the $Y(4360)$ and $Y(4660)$ states are determined. Fitting the mass spectrum of $\pi^+\pi^-\psi(2S)$ with two coherent Breit-Wigner functions, we find two solutions with identical mass and width but different couplings to electron-positron pairs: $M_{Y(4360)} = (4347\pm 6\pm 3) {\rm MeV}/c^2$, $\Gamma_{Y(4360)} = (103\pm 9\pm 5) {\rm MeV}$, $M_{Y(4660)} = (4652\pm10\pm 8) {\rm MeV}/c^2$, $\Gamma_{Y(4660)} = (68\pm 11\pm 1) \rm MeV$; and ${\cal{B}}[Y(4360)\to \pi^+\pi^-\psi(2S)]\cdot \Gamma_{Y(4360)}^{e^+e^-} = (10.9\pm 0.6\pm 0.7) \rm eV$ and ${\cal{B}}[Y(4660)\to \pi^+\pi^-\psi(2S)]\cdot \Gamma_{Y(4660)}^{e^+e^-} = (8.1\pm 1.1\pm 0.5) \rm eV$ for one solution; or ${\cal{B}}[Y(4360)\to \pi^+\pi^-\psi(2S)]\cdot \Gamma_{Y(4360)}^{e^+e^-} = (9.2\pm 0.6\pm 0.6) \rm eV$ and ${\cal{B}}[Y(4660)\to \pi^+\pi^-\psi(2S)]\cdot \Gamma_{Y(4660)}^{e^+e^-} = (2.0\pm 0.3\pm 0.2) \rm eV$ for the other. Here, the first errors are statistical and the second systematic. Evidence for a charged charmoniumlike structure at $4.05 {\rm GeV}/c^2$ is observed in the $\pi^{\pm}\psi(2S)$ intermediate state in the $Y(4360)$ decays.
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.
We have measured the total inelastic cross section (σinel) and charged-particle multiplicities obtained in pp collisions at 405 GeV/c. The data are from a preliminary 12 000-picture bubble-chamber exposure. We find σinel=32.8±1.0 mb; the low moments of the multiplicity distribution for negative particles are 〈n−〉=3.50±0.07, D−=2.37±0.05, f2−=2.1±0.2, and f3−=0.1±0.9. We also present updated results at 102 GeV/c.
The cross section for e+e- to pi+ pi- psi(2S) between threshold and \sqrt{s}=5.5 GeV is measured using 673 fb^{-1} of data on and off the \Upsilon(4S) resonance collected with the Belle detector at KEKB. Two resonant structures are observed in the pi+ pi- psi(2S) invariant mass distribution, one at 4361\pm 9\pm 9 MeV/c2 with a width of 74\pm 15\pm 10 MeV/c2, and another at 4664\pm 11\pm 5 MeV/c2 with a width of 48\pm 15\pm 3 MeV/c2, if the mass spectrum is parameterized with the coherent sum of two Breit-Wigner functions. These values do not match those of any of the known charmonium states.
ALICE is a large experiment at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. Located 52 meters underground, its detectors are suitable to measure muons produced by cosmic-ray interactions in the atmosphere. In this paper, the studies of the cosmic muons registered by ALICE during Run 2 (2015--2018) are described. The analysis is limited to multimuon events defined as events with more than four detected muons ($N_\mu>4$) and in the zenith angle range $0^{\circ}<\theta<50^{\circ}$. The results are compared with Monte Carlo simulations using three of the main hadronic interaction models describing the air shower development in the atmosphere: QGSJET-II-04, EPOS-LHC, and SIBYLL 2.3d. The interval of the primary cosmic-ray energy involved in the measured muon multiplicity distribution is about $ 4 \times 10^{15}<E_\mathrm{prim}< 6 \times 10^{16}$~eV. In this interval none of the three models is able to describe precisely the trend of the composition of cosmic rays as the energy increases. However, QGSJET-II-04 is found to be the only model capable of reproducing reasonably well the muon multiplicity distribution, assuming a heavy composition of the primary cosmic rays over the whole energy range, while SIBYLL 2.3d and EPOS-LHC underpredict the number of muons in a large interval of multiplicity by more than $20\%$ and $30\%$, respectively. The rate of high muon multiplicity events ($N_\mu>100$) obtained with QGSJET-II-04 and SIBYLL 2.3d is compatible with the data, while EPOS-LHC produces a significantly lower rate ($55\%$ of the measured rate). For both QGSJET-II-04 and SIBYLL 2.3d, the rate is close to the data when the composition is assumed to be dominated by heavy elements, an outcome compatible with the average energy $E_\mathrm{prim} \sim 10^{17}$ eV of these events. This result places significant constraints on more exotic production mechanisms.
Differential cross sections for the reaction π−p→π0n were measured at nine incident-pion kinetic energies in the interval from 500 to 1300 MeV. The negative pion beam from the bevatron was focused on a liquidhydrogen target completely surrounded by a cubic array of six steel-plate spark chambers. The spark chambers were triggered on events with neutral final states. Charge-exchange events were identified from the one-shower and two-shower events in the spark-chamber pictures. By the Monte Carlo technique, the π0 distributions were calculated from the bisector distributions of the two-shower π0 events together with the observed γ-ray distributions of the one-shower π0 events. These π0 distributions were fitted with both Legendre-polynomial expansions and power-series expansions by the method of least squares. The extrapolated forward differential cross sections are in good agreement with the dispersion calculations. The Legendre coefficients for the differential cross sections in isospin state T=12 were obtained by combining our results with available data on π±p elastic scattering. In the light of existing phase-shift solutions, the behavior of these coefficients is discussed. The D5F5 interference term that peaks near 900 MeV is verified to be in isospin state T=12 only. We report here also the total neutral cross sections and the cross sections for the production of neutral multipion final states 2π0n and 3π0n. The 4π solid angle and the calibrated energy response of the spark chambers contribute to the accuracy of the results.
We report a high-statistics measurement of the branching fraction for tau^- -> pi^- pi^0 nu_tau and the invariant mass spectrum of the produced pi^- pi^0 system using 72.2 fb^-1 of data recorded with the Belle detector at the KEKB asymmetric-energy e^+ e^- collider. The branching fraction obtained is (25.12 +/- 0.01 +/- 0.38)%, where the first error is statistical and the second is systematic. The unfolded pi^- pi^0 mass spectrum is used to determine resonance parameters for the rho(770), rho'(1450), and rho''(1700) mesons. We also use this spectrum to estimate the hadronic (2pi) contribution to the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon (a_{mu}^{pipi}). Our result for a_{mu}^{pipi} integrated over the mass range sqrt{s} = 2m_{pi} - 1.8 GeV/c^2 is a_{mu}^{pipi} = (519.1 +/- 1.5 (exp) +/- 2.6 (Br) +/- 2.5 (isospin)) x 10^{-10}, where the first error is due to the experimental uncertainties, the second is due to the uncertainties in the branching fractions and the third is due to the uncertainties in the isospin-violating corrections.
The FASER experiment at the LHC is designed to search for light, weakly-interacting particles produced in proton-proton collisions at the ATLAS interaction point that travel in the far-forward direction. The first results from a search for dark photons decaying to an electron-positron pair, using a dataset corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 27.0 fb$^{-1}$ collected at center-of-mass energy $\sqrt{s} = 13.6$ TeV in 2022 in LHC Run 3, are presented. No events are seen in an almost background-free analysis, yielding world-leading constraints on dark photons with couplings $\epsilon \sim 2 \times 10^{-5} - 1 \times 10^{-4}$ and masses $\sim$ 17 MeV - 70 MeV. The analysis is also used to probe the parameter space of a massive gauge boson from a U(1)$_{B-L}$ model, with couplings $g_{B-L} \sim 5 \times 10^{-6} - 2 \times 10^{-5}$ and masses $\sim$ 15 MeV - 40 MeV excluded for the first time.
Event-by-event fluctuations of the event-wise mean transverse momentum, $\langle p_{\mathrm{T}}\rangle$, of charged particles produced in proton-proton (pp) collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 5.02 TeV, Xe-Xe collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}$ = 5.44 TeV, and Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}$ = 5.02 TeV are studied using the ALICE detector based on the integral correlator $\langle\langle \Delta p_{\rm T}\Delta p_{\rm T}\rangle\rangle $. The correlator strength is found to decrease monotonically with increasing produced charged-particle multiplicity measured at midrapidity in all three systems. In Xe-Xe and Pb-Pb collisions, the multiplicity dependence of the correlator deviates significantly from a simple power-law scaling as well as from the predictions of the HIJING and AMPT models. The observed deviation from power-law scaling is expected from transverse radial flow in semicentral to central Xe-Xe and Pb-Pb collisions. In pp collisions, the correlation strength is also studied by classifying the events based on the transverse spherocity, $S_0$, of the particle production at midrapidity, used as a proxy for the presence of a pronounced back-to-back jet topology. Low-spherocity (jetty) events feature a larger correlation strength than those with high spherocity (isotropic). The strength and multiplicity dependence of jetty and isotropic events are well reproduced by calculations with the PYTHIA 8 and EPOS LHC models.
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