The ALICE Collaboration has studied the inclusive production of the charmonium state $\psi(2S)$ in proton-lead (p-Pb) collisions at the nucleon-nucleon centre of mass energy $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 5.02 TeV at the CERN LHC. The measurement was performed at forward ($2.03<y_{cms}<3.53$) and backward ($-4.46<y_{cms}<-2.96$) centre of mass rapidities, studying the decays into muon pairs. In this paper, we present the inclusive production cross sections $\sigma_{\psi(2S)}$, both integrated and as a function of the transverse momentum $p_{T}$, for the two $y_{cms}$ domains. The results are compared to those obtained for the 1S vector state (J/$\psi$), by showing the ratios between the production cross sections, as well as the double ratios $[\sigma_{\psi(2S)}/\sigma_{J/\psi}]_{pPb}/[\sigma_{\psi(2S)}/\sigma_{J/\psi}]_{pp}$ between p-Pb and proton-proton collisions. Finally, the nuclear modification factor for inclusive $\psi(2S)$ is evaluated and compared to the measurement of the same quantity for J/$\psi$ and to theoretical models including parton shadowing and coherent energy loss mechanisms. The results show a significantly larger suppression of the $\psi(2S)$ compared to that measured for J/$\psi$ and to models. These observations represent a clear indication for sizeable final state effects on $\psi(2S)$ production.
The structure of nucleons is multidimensional and depends on the transverse momenta, spatial geometry, and polarization of the constituent partons. Such a structure can be studied using high-energy photons produced in ultraperipheral heavy-ion collisions. The first measurement of the azimuthal angular correlations of exclusively produced events with two jets in photon-lead interactions at large momentum transfer is presented, a process that is considered to be sensitive to the underlying nuclear gluon polarization. This study uses a data sample of ultraperipheral lead-lead collisions at $\sqrt{s_\mathrm{NN}}$ = 5.02 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 0.38 nb$^{-1}$, collected with the CMS experiment at the LHC. The measured second harmonic of the correlation between the sum and difference of the two jet momenta is found to be positive, and rising, as the dijet momentum increases. A well-tuned model that has been successful at describing a wide range of proton scattering data from the HERA experiments fails to describe the observed correlations, suggesting the presence of gluon polarization effects.
In July 2012, the ATLAS and CMS Collaborations at the CERN Large Hadron Collider announced the observation of a Higgs boson at a mass of around 125 GeV. Ten years later, and with the data corresponding to the production of 30 times larger number of Higgs bosons, we have learnt much more about the properties of the Higgs boson. The CMS experiment has observed the Higgs boson in numerous fermionic and bosonic decay channels, established its spin-parity quantum numbers, determined its mass and measured its production cross sections in various modes. Here the CMS Collaboration reports the most up-to-date combination of results on the properties of the Higgs boson, including the most stringent limit on the cross section for the production of a pair of Higgs bosons, on the basis of data from proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV. Within the uncertainties, all these observations are compatible with the predictions of the standard model of elementary particle physics. Much evidence points to the fact that the standard model is a low-energy approximation of a more comprehensive theory. Several of the standard model issues originate in the sector of Higgs boson physics. An order of magnitude larger number of Higgs bosons, expected to be examined over the next fifteen years, will help deepen our understanding of this crucial sector.
We have studied the transverse-momentum ($p_{\rm T}$) dependence of the inclusive J/$\psi$ production in p-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}} = 5.02$ TeV, in three center-of-mass rapidity ($y_{\rm cms}$) regions, down to zero $p_{\rm T}$. Results in the forward and backward rapidity ranges ($2.03 < y_{\rm cms} < 3.53$ and $-4.46 <y_{\rm cms}< -2.96$) are obtained by studying the J/$\psi$ decay to $\mu^+\mu^-$, while the mid-rapidity region ($-1.37 < y_{\rm cms} < 0.43$) is investigated by measuring the ${\rm e}^+{\rm e}^-$ decay channel. The $p_{\rm T}$ dependence of the J/$\psi$ production cross section and nuclear modification factor are presented for each of the rapidity intervals, as well as the J/$\psi$ mean $p_{\rm T}$ values. Forward and mid-rapidity results show a suppression of the J/$\psi$ yield, with respect to pp collisions, which decreases with increasing $p_{\rm T}$. At backward rapidity no significant J/$\psi$ suppression is observed. Theoretical models including a combination of cold nuclear matter effects such as shadowing and partonic energy loss, are in fair agreement with the data, except at forward rapidity and low transverse momentum. The implications of the p-Pb results for the evaluation of cold nuclear matter effects on J/$\psi$ production in Pb-Pb collisions are also discussed.
The production cross section of inclusive J/$\psi$ pairs in pp collisions at a centre-of-mass energy $\sqrt{s} = 13$ TeV is measured with ALICE. The measurement is performed for J/$\psi$ in the rapidity interval $2.5 < y < 4.0$ and for transverse momentum $p_{\rm T} > 0$. The production cross section of inclusive J/$\psi$ pairs is reported to be $10.3 \pm 2.3 {\rm (stat.)} \pm 1.3 {\rm (syst.)}$ nb in this kinematic interval. The contribution from non-prompt J/$\psi$ (i.e. originated from beauty-hadron decays) to the inclusive sample is evaluated. The results are discussed and compared with data.
Two-particle angular correlations are measured in high-multiplicity proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s} =13$ TeV by the ALICE Collaboration. The yields of particle pairs at short-($\Delta\eta$$\sim$ 0) and long-range ($1.6 < |\Delta\eta| < 1.8$) in pseudorapidity are extracted on the near-side ($\Delta\varphi$$\sim$ 0). They are reported as a function of transverse momentum ($p_{\mathrm T}$) in the range $1 <p_{\mathrm T}< 4$ GeV/$c$. Furthermore, the event-scale dependence is studied for the first time by requiring the presence of high-$p_{\rm T}$ leading particles and jets for varying $p_{\rm T}$ thresholds. The results demonstrate that the long-range "ridge" yield, possibly related to the collective behavior of the system, is present in events with high-$p_{\mathrm T}$ processes. The magnitudes of the short- and long-range yields are found to grow with the event scale. The results are compared to EPOS LHC and PYTHIA 8 calculations, with and without string-shoving interactions. It is found that while both models describe the qualitative trends in the data, calculations from EPOS LHC show a better quantitative agreement, in particular for the $p_{\rm T}$ and event-scale dependencies.
The strength of forward-backward (FB) multiplicity correlations is measured by the ALICE detector in proton-proton (pp) collisions at $\sqrt{s}=0.9$, 2.76 and 7 TeV. The measurement is performed in the central pseudorapidity region ($|\eta| < 0.8$) for the transverse momentum $p_{\rm T}>0.3$ GeV/$c$. Two separate pseudorapidity windows of width ($\delta \eta$) ranging from 0.2 to 0.8 are chosen symmetrically around $\eta=0$. The multiplicity correlation strength ($b_{\rm cor}$) is studied as a function of the pseudorapidity gap ($\eta_{\rm gap}$) between the two windows as well as the width of these windows. The correlation strength is found to decrease with increasing $\eta_{\rm gap}$ and shows a non-linear increase with $\delta\eta$. A sizable increase of the correlation strength with the collision energy, which cannot be explained exclusively by the increase of the mean multiplicity inside the windows, is observed. The correlation coefficient is also measured for multiplicities in different configurations of two azimuthal sectors selected within the symmetric FB $\eta$-windows. Two different contributions, the short-range (SR) and the long-range (LR), are observed. The energy dependence of $b_{\rm cor}$ is found to be weak for the SR component while it is strong for the LR component. Moreover, the correlation coefficient is studied for particles belonging to various transverse momentum intervals chosen to have the same mean multiplicity. Both SR and LR contributions to $b_{\rm cor}$ are found to increase with $p_{\rm T}$ in this case. Results are compared to PYTHIA and PHOJET event generators and to a string-based phenomenological model. The observed dependencies of $b_{\rm cor}$ add new constraints on phenomenological models.
Using a data sample of proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s} =$ 13 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 140 fb$^{-1}$ collected by the CMS experiment in 2016-2018, the B$^0_\mathrm{s}$ $\to$ X(3872)$\phi$ decay is observed. Decays into J/$\psi\,\pi^+\pi^-$ and K$^+$K$^-$ are used to reconstruct, respectively, the X(3872) and $\phi$. The ratio of the product of branching fractions $\mathcal{B}($B$^0_\mathrm{s}$ $\to$ X(3872)$\phi)\,\mathcal{B}($X(3872) $\to$ J$/\psi\,\pi^+\pi^-)$ to the product $\mathcal{B}($B$^0_\mathrm{s}$ $\to$ $\psi$(2S)$\phi)\,\mathcal{B}(\psi$(2S) $\to$ J/$\psi\,\pi^+\pi^-)$ is measured to be (2.21 $\pm$ 0.29 (stat) $\pm$ 0.17 (syst))%. The ratio $\mathcal{B}($B$^0_\mathrm{s}$ $\to$ X(3872)$\phi) / \mathcal{B}($B$^{0}$ $\to$ X(3872)K$^0)$ is found to be consistent with one, while the ratio $\mathcal{B}($B$^0_\mathrm{s}$ $\to$ X(3872)$\phi) / \mathcal{B}($B$^+$ $\to$ X(3872)K$^+)$ is two times smaller. This suggests a difference in the production dynamics of the X(3872) in B$^0$ and B$^0_\mathrm{s}$ meson decays compared to B$^+$. The reported observation may shed new light on the nature of the X(3872) particle.
Using proton-proton collision data collected by the CMS experiment at $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV in 2016$-$2018, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 140 fb$^{-1}$, the first full reconstruction of the three vector B meson states, B$^{*+}$, B$^{*0}$, and B$^{*0}_\text{s}$, is performed. The mass differences between the excited mesons and their corresponding ground states are measured to be $m(\text{B}^{*+})-m(\text{B}^+)$ = 45.277 $\pm$ 0.039 $\pm$ 0.027 MeV, $m(\text{B}^{*0})- m(\text{B}^0)$ = 45.471 $\pm$ 0.056 $\pm$ 0.028 MeV, and $m(\text{B}^{*0}_\text{s})-m(\text{B}_\text{s})$ = 49.407 $\pm$ 0.132 $\pm$ 0.041 MeV, where the first uncertainties are statistical and the second are systematic. These results improve on the precision of previous measurements by an order of magnitude.
A search is presented for physics beyond the standard model, based on measurements of dijet angular distributions in proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s}=$ 13 TeV. The data collected with the CMS detector at the LHC correspond to an integrated luminosity of 35.9 fb$^{-1}$. The observed distributions are found to be in agreement with predictions from perturbative quantum chromodynamics that include electroweak corrections. Constraints are placed on models containing quark contact interactions, extra spatial dimensions, quantum black holes, or dark matter using the detector-level distributions. In a benchmark model where only left-handed quarks participate, contact interactions are excluded at the 95% confidence level up to a scale of 12.8 or 17.5 TeV, for destructive or constructive interference, respectively. The most stringent lower limits to date are set on the ultraviolet cutoff in the Arkani-Hamed-Dimopoulos-Dvali model of extra dimensions. In the Giudice-Rattazzi-Wells convention, the cutoff scale is excluded up to 10.1 TeV. The production of quantum black holes is excluded for masses below 5.9 and 8.2 TeV, depending on the model. For the first time, lower limits between 2.0 and 4.6 TeV are set on the mass of a dark matter mediator for (axial-)vector mediators, for the universal quark coupling $g_\mathrm{q}\geq$ 1.
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