In high-energy collisions, the spatio-temporal size of the particle production region can be measured using the Bose-Einstein correlations of identical bosons at low relative momentum. The source radii are typically extracted using two-pion correlations, and characterize the system at the last stage of interaction, called kinetic freeze-out. In low-multiplicity collisions, unlike in high-multiplicity collisions, two-pion correlations are substantially altered by background correlations, e.g. mini-jets. Such correlations can be suppressed using three-pion cumulant correlations. We present the first measurements of the size of the system at freeze-out extracted from three-pion cumulant correlations in pp, p-Pb and Pb-Pb collisions at the LHC with ALICE. At similar multiplicity, the invariant radii extracted in p-Pb collisions are found to be 5-15% larger than those in pp, while those in Pb-Pb are 35-55% larger than those in p-Pb. Our measurements disfavor models which incorporate substantially stronger collective expansion in p-Pb as compared to pp collisions at similar multiplicity.
Mixed charge C3 and c3 in pp collisions projected against 1 of a mixed-charge pair invariant relative momentum.
Same charge C3 and c3 in pp collisions projected against Q3.
Same charge C3 and c3 in p Pb collisions projected against Q3.
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%.
C2 versus qinv for same-charge pions in six kT intervals. 0-5% centrality.
C2 versus qinv for mixed-charge pions in six kT intervals. 0-5% centrality.
C2 versus qinv for same-charge pions in six kT intervals. 45-50% centrality.
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