The first measurement of two-pion Bose-Einstein correlations in central Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}} = 2.76$ TeV at the Large Hadron Collider is presented. We observe a growing trend with energy now not only for the longitudinal and the outward but also for the sideward pion source radius. The pion homogeneity volume and the decoupling time are significantly larger than those measured at RHIC.
Density fluctuations near the QCD critical point can be probed via an intermittency analysis in relativistic heavy-ion collisions. We report the first measurement of intermittency in Au$+$Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_\mathrm{_{NN}}}$ = 7.7-200 GeV measured by the STAR experiment at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC). The scaled factorial moments of identified charged hadrons are analyzed at mid-rapidity and within the transverse momentum phase space. We observe a power-law behavior of scaled factorial moments in Au$+$Au collisions and a decrease in the extracted scaling exponent ($\nu$) from peripheral to central collisions. The $\nu$ is consistent with a constant for different collisions energies in the mid-central (10-40%) collisions. Moreover, the $\nu$ in the 0-5% most central Au$+$Au collisions exhibits a non-monotonic energy dependence that reaches a possible minimum around $\sqrt{s_\mathrm{_{NN}}}$ = 27 GeV. The physics implications on the QCD phase structure are discussed.
The ratio of the yields of antiprotons to protons in pp collisions has been measured by the ALICE experiment at $\sqrt{s} = 0.9$ and $7$ TeV during the initial running periods of the Large Hadron Collider(LHC). The measurement covers the transverse momentum interval $0.45 < p_{\rm{t}} < 1.05$ GeV/$c$ and rapidity $|y| < 0.5$. The ratio is measured to be $R_{|y| < 0.5} = 0.957 \pm 0.006 (stat.) \pm 0.014 (syst.)$ at $0.9$ TeV and $R_{|y| < 0.5} = 0.991 \pm 0.005 (stat.) \pm 0.014 (syst.)$ at $7$ TeV and it is independent of both rapidity and transverse momentum. The results are consistent with the conventional model of baryon-number transport and set stringent limits on any additional contributions to baryon-number transfer over very large rapidity intervals in pp collisions.
The ALICE Collaboration reports three measurements in ultra-peripheral proton$-$lead collisions at forward rapidity. The exclusive two-photon process \ggmm and the exclusive photoproduction of J/$\psi$ are studied. J/$\psi$ photoproduction with proton dissociation is measured for the first time at a hadron collider. The cross section for the two-photon process of dimuons in the invariant mass range from 1 to 2.5 GeV/$c^2$ agrees with leading order quantum electrodynamics calculations. The exclusive and dissociative cross sections for J/$\psi$ photoproductions are measured for photon$-$proton centre-of-mass energies from 27 to 57 GeV. They are in good agreement with HERA results.
We report the triton ($t$) production in mid-rapidity ($|y| <$ 0.5) Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_\mathrm{NN}}$= 7.7--200 GeV measured by the STAR experiment from the first phase of the beam energy scan at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC). The nuclear compound yield ratio ($\mathrm{N}_t \times \mathrm{N}_p/\mathrm{N}_d^2$), which is predicted to be sensitive to the fluctuation of local neutron density, is observed to decrease monotonically with increasing charged-particle multiplicity ($dN_{ch}/d\eta$) and follows a scaling behavior. The $dN_{ch}/d\eta$ dependence of the yield ratio is compared to calculations from coalescence and thermal models. Enhancements in the yield ratios relative to the coalescence baseline are observed in the 0%-10% most central collisions at 19.6 and 27 GeV, with a significance of 2.3$\sigma$ and 3.4$\sigma$, respectively, giving a combined significance of 4.1$\sigma$. The enhancements are not observed in peripheral collisions or model calculations without critical fluctuation, and decreases with a smaller $p_{T}$ acceptance. The physics implications of these results on the QCD phase structure and the production mechanism of light nuclei in heavy-ion collisions are discussed.
New measurements of directed flow for charged hadrons, characterized by the Fourier coefficient \vone, are presented for transverse momenta $\mathrm{p_T}$, and centrality intervals in Au+Au collisions recorded by the STAR experiment for the center-of-mass energy range $\mathrm{\sqrt{s_{_{NN}}}} = 7.7 - 200$ GeV. The measurements underscore the importance of momentum conservation and the characteristic dependencies on $\mathrm{\sqrt{s_{_{NN}}}}$, centrality and $\mathrm{p_T}$ are consistent with the expectations of geometric fluctuations generated in the initial stages of the collision, acting in concert with a hydrodynamic-like expansion. The centrality and $\mathrm{p_T}$ dependencies of $\mathrm{v^{even}_{1}}$, as well as an observed similarity between its excitation function and that for $\mathrm{v_3}$, could serve as constraints for initial-state models. The $\mathrm{v^{even}_{1}}$ excitation function could also provide an important supplement to the flow measurements employed for precision extraction of the temperature dependence of the specific shear viscosity.
We report a systematic measurement of cumulants, $C_{n}$, for net-proton, proton and antiproton multiplicity distributions, and correlation functions, $\kappa_n$, for proton and antiproton multiplicity distributions up to the fourth order in Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm {NN}}}$ = 7.7, 11.5, 14.5, 19.6, 27, 39, 54.4, 62.4 and 200 GeV. The $C_{n}$ and $\kappa_n$ are presented as a function of collision energy, centrality and kinematic acceptance in rapidity, $y$, and transverse momentum, $p_{T}$. The data were taken during the first phase of the Beam Energy Scan (BES) program (2010 -- 2017) at the BNL Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) facility. The measurements are carried out at midrapidity ($|y| <$ 0.5) and transverse momentum 0.4 $<$$p_{\rm T}$$<$ 2.0 GeV/$c$, using the STAR detector at RHIC. We observe a non-monotonic energy dependence ($\sqrt{s_{\mathrm {NN}}}$ = 7.7 -- 62.4 GeV) of the net-proton $C_{4}$/$C_{2}$ with the significance of 3.1$\sigma$ for the 0-5% central Au+Au collisions. This is consistent with the expectations of critical fluctuations in a QCD-inspired model. Thermal and transport model calculations show a monotonic variation with $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm {NN}}}$. For the multiparticle correlation functions, we observe significant negative values for a two-particle correlation function, $\kappa_2$, of protons and antiprotons, which are mainly due to the effects of baryon number conservation. Furthermore, it is found that the four-particle correlation function, $\kappa_4$, of protons plays a role in determining the energy dependence of proton $C_4/C_1$ below 19.6 GeV, which cannot be understood by the effect of baryon number conservation.
According to first-principle lattice QCD calculations, the transition from quark-gluon plasma to hadronic matter is a smooth crossover in the region μB ≤ T c. In this range the ratio, C6=C2, of net-baryon distributions are predicted to be negative. In this Letter, we report the first measurement of the midrapidity net-proton C6=C2 from 27, 54.4, and 200 GeV Au þ Au collisions at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC). The dependence on collision centrality and kinematic acceptance in (p T , y) are analyzed. While for 27 and 54.4 GeV collisions the C6=C2 values are close to zero within uncertainties, it is observed that for 200 GeV collisions, the C6=C2 ratio becomes progressively negative from peripheral to central collisions. Transport model calculations without critical dynamics predict mostly positive values except for the most central collisions within uncertainties. These observations seem to favor a smooth crossover in the high-energy nuclear collisions at top RHIC energy.
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