The study of (anti-)deuteron production in pp collisions has proven to be a powerful tool to investigate the formation mechanism of loosely bound states in high energy hadronic collisions. In this paper the production of (anti-)deuterons is studied as a function of the charged particle multiplicity in inelastic pp collisions at $\sqrt{s}=13$ TeV using the ALICE experiment. Thanks to the large number of accumulated minimum bias events, it has been possible to measure (anti-)deuteron production in pp collisions up to the same charged particle multiplicity ($\rm{d} N_{ch}/\rm{d}\eta\sim26$) as measured in p-Pb collisions at similar centre-of-mass energies. Within the uncertainties, the deuteron yield in pp collisions resembles the one in p-Pb interactions, suggesting a common formation mechanism behind the production of light nuclei in hadronic interactions. In this context the measurements are compared with the expectations of coalescence and Statistical Hadronisation Models (SHM).
Transverse momentum distributions of deuterons in the INEL>0 pp collisions
Transverse momentum distributions of deuterons in the INEL pp collisions
Transverse momentum distributions of anti-deuterons in the INEL>0 pp collisions
We report first measurements of $e^{+}e^{-}$ pair production in the mass region 0.4 $
The centrality dependence of e+e− invariant mass spectra within the STAR acceptance from Au+Au collisions and U+U collisions for pair pT < 0.15 GeV/c. The vertical bars on data points depict the statistical uncertainties, while the systematic uncertainties are shown as gray boxes. The hadronic cocktail yields from U+U collisions are ∼5%–12% higher than those from Au+Au collisions in given centrality bins; thus only cocktails for Au+Au collisions are shown here as solid lines, with shaded bands representing the systematic uncertainties for clarity.
The centrality dependence of e+e− invariant mass spectra within the STAR acceptance from Au+Au collisions and U+U collisions for pair pT < 0.15 GeV/c. The vertical bars on data points depict the statistical uncertainties, while the systematic uncertainties are shown as gray boxes. The hadronic cocktail yields from U+U collisions are ∼5%–12% higher than those from Au+Au collisions in given centrality bins; thus only cocktails for Au+Au collisions are shown here as solid lines, with shaded bands representing the systematic uncertainties for clarity.
The centrality dependence of e+e− invariant mass spectra within the STAR acceptance from Au+Au collisions and U+U collisions for pair pT < 0.15 GeV/c. The vertical bars on data points depict the statistical uncertainties, while the systematic uncertainties are shown as gray boxes. The hadronic cocktail yields from U+U collisions are ∼5%–12% higher than those from Au+Au collisions in given centrality bins; thus only cocktails for Au+Au collisions are shown here as solid lines, with shaded bands representing the systematic uncertainties for clarity.
We report a new measurement of $D^0$-meson production at mid-rapidity ($|y|$\,$<$\,1) in Au+Au collisions at ${\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}} = \rm{200\,GeV}}$ utilizing the Heavy Flavor Tracker, a high resolution silicon detector at the STAR experiment. Invariant yields of $D^0$-mesons with transverse momentum $p_{T}$ $\lesssim 9$\,GeV/$c$ are reported in various centrality bins (0--10\%, 10--20\%, 20--40\%, 40--60\% and 60--80\%). Blast-Wave thermal models are used to fit the $D^0$-meson $p_{T}$ spectra to study $D^0$ hadron kinetic freeze-out properties. The average radial flow velocity extracted from the fit is considerably smaller than that of light hadrons ($\pi,K$ and $p$), but comparable to that of hadrons containing multiple strange quarks ($\phi,\Xi^-$), indicating that $D^0$ mesons kinetically decouple from the system earlier than light hadrons. The calculated $D^0$ nuclear modification factors re-affirm that charm quarks suffer large amount of energy loss in the medium, similar to those of light quarks for $p_{T}$\,$>$\,4\,GeV/$c$ in central 0--10\% Au+Au collisions. At low $p_{T}$, the nuclear modification factors show a characteristic structure qualitatively consistent with the expectation from model predictions that charm quarks gain sizable collective motion during the medium evolution. The improved measurements are expected to offer new constraints to model calculations and help gain further insights into the hot and dense medium created in these collisions.
$D^0$ (in terms of (D0 +D0)/2)) invariant yield at mid-rapidity ($|y| < 1$) vs transverse momentum for different centrality classes. Error bars indicate statistical uncertainties and brackets depict systematic uncertainties. Global systematic uncertainties in B.R. are not plotted. Solid and dashed lines depict Levy function fits.
$D^0$ (in terms of (D0 +D0)/2)) spectra in pp collisions. Note, the $\sigma_{NSD}$ = 30 $m$b for p+p was used in the calculations.
Integrated $D^0$ cross section per nucleon-nucleon collision at mid-rapidity for $p_T >0$ (a) and $p_T >4$ GeV/c (b) as a function of centrality $N_{part}$. The statistical and systematic uncertainties are shown as error bars and brackets on the data points. The green boxes on the data points depict the overall normalization uncertainties in p+p and Au+Au data respectively.
The polarization of Λ0 hyperons in inclusive production by 12-GeV protons on nuclei has been measured for beryllium, copper, and tungsten targets. Data are obtained at five production angles, 3.5°, 5.0°, 6.5°, 8.0°, and 9.5°, covering the kinematic range 0.26≤xF≤0.77 and 0.4≤pT≤1.5 GeV/c. The dependence of the polarization on target nuclei is investigated by statistical analyses of the data. The polarization at fixed pT increases roughly linearly with xF. The present results are compared with other work at higher energies in terms of the A dependence and the (xF,pT) dependence.
Flow harmonics ($v_n$) in the Fourier expansion of the azimuthal distribution of particles are widely used to quantify the anisotropy in particle emission in high-energy heavy-ion collisions. The symmetric cumulants, $SC(m,n)$, are used to measure the correlations between different orders of flow harmonics. These correlations are used to constrain the initial conditions and the transport properties of the medium in theoretical models. In this Letter, we present the first measurements of the four-particle symmetric cumulants in Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 39 and 200 GeV from data collected by the STAR experiment at RHIC. We observe that $v_{2}$ and $v_{3}$ are anti-correlated in all centrality intervals with similar correlation strengths from 39 GeV Au+Au to 2.76 TeV Pb+Pb (measured by the ALICE experiment). The $v_{2}$-$v_{4}$ correlation seems to be stronger at 39 GeV than at higher collision energies. The initial-stage anti-correlations between second and third order eccentricities are sufficient to describe the measured correlations between $v_{2}$ and $v_{3}$. The best description of $v_{2}$-$v_{4}$ correlations at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 200 GeV is obtained with inclusion of the system's nonlinear response to initial eccentricities accompanied by the viscous effect with $\eta/s$ $>$ 0.08. Theoretical calculations using different initial conditions, equations of state and viscous coefficients need to be further explored to extract $\eta/s$ of the medium created at RHIC.
The collective behavior of K$^0_\mathrm{S}$ and $\Lambda/\bar{\Lambda}$ strange hadrons is studied by measuring the elliptic azimuthal anisotropy ($v_2$) using the scalar-product and multiparticle correlation methods. Proton-lead (pPb) collisions at a nucleon-nucleon center-of-mass energy $\sqrt{s_\mathrm{NN}}$ = 8.16 TeV and lead-lead (PbPb) collisions at $\sqrt{s_\mathrm{NN}}$ = 5.02 TeV collected by the CMS experiment at the LHC are investigated. Nonflow effects in the pPb collisions are studied by using a subevent cumulant analysis and by excluding events where a jet with transverse momentum greater than 20\GeV is present. The strange hadron $v_2$ values extracted in \pPb collisions via the four- and six-particle correlation method are found to be nearly identical, suggesting the collective behavior. Comparisons of the pPb and PbPb results for both strange hadrons and charged particles illustrate how event-by-event flow fluctuations depend on the system size.
The azimuthal anisotropic flow of identified and unidentified charged particles has been systematically studied in Cu+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{_{NN}}}$ = 200 GeV for harmonics $n=$ 1-4 in the pseudorapidity range $|\eta|<1$. The directed flow in Cu+Au collisions is compared with the rapidity-odd and, for the first time, the rapidity-even components of charged particle directed flow in Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{_{NN}}}$ = 200~GeV. The slope of the directed flow pseudorapidity dependence in Cu+Au collisions is found to be similar to that in Au+Au collisions, with the intercept shifted toward positive $\eta$ values, i.e., the Cu-going direction. The mean transverse momentum projected onto the spectator plane, $\langle p_x\rangle$, in Cu+Au collision also exhibits approximately linear dependence on $\eta$ with the intercept at about $\eta\approx-0.4$, closer to the rapidity of the Cu+Au system center-of-mass. The observed dependencies find natural explanation in a picture of the directed flow originating partly due the "tilted source" and partly due to the rapidity dependent asymmetry in the initial density distribution. Charge-dependence of the $\langle p_x\rangle$ was also observed in Cu+Au collisions, indicating an effect of the initial electric field created by charge difference of the spectator protons in two colliding nuclei. The rapidity-even component of directed flow in Au+Au collisions is close to that in Pb+Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{_{NN}}}$ = 2.76 TeV, indicating a similar magnitude of dipole-like fluctuations in the initial-state density distribution. Higher harmonic flow in Cu+Au collisions exhibits similar trends to those observed in Au+Au and Pb+Pb collisions and is qualitatively reproduced by a viscous hydrodynamic model and a multi-phase transport model. For all harmonics with $n\ge2$ we observe an approximate scaling of $v_n$ with the number of constituent quarks.
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.
This article reports measurements characterizing the Underlying Event (UE) associated with hard scatterings at midrapidity in pp collisions at $\sqrt{s}=13$ TeV. The hard scatterings are identified by the leading particle, the charged particle with the highest transverse momentum ($p_{\rm T}^{\rm leading}$) in the event. Charged-particle number and summed transverse-momentum densities are measured in different azimuthal regions defined with respect to the leading particle direction: Toward, Transverse, and Away. The Toward and Away regions contain the fragmentation products of the hard scatterings in addition to the UE contribution, whereas particles in the Transverse region are expected to originate predominantly from the UE. The study is performed as a function of $p_{\rm T}^{\rm leading}$ with three different $p_{\rm T}$ thresholds for the associated particles, $p_{\rm T}^{\rm min} >$ 0.15, 0.5, and 1.0 GeV/$c$. The charged-particle density in the Transverse region rises steeply for low values of $p_{\rm T}^{\rm leading}$ and reaches a plateau. The results confirm the trend that the charged-particle density in the Transverse region shows a stronger increase with $\sqrt{s}$ than the inclusive charged-particle density at midrapidity. The UE activity is increased by approximately 20% when going from 7 to 13 TeV. The plateau in the Transverse region ($5 < p_{\rm T}^{\rm leading} < ~ 40$ GeV/$c$ ) is further characterized by the probability distribution of its charged-particle multiplicity normalized to its average value (relative transverse activity, $R_{T}$) and the mean transverse momentum as a function of $R_{T}$. Experimental results are compared to model calculations using PYTHIA 8 and EPOS LHC. The overall agreement between models and data is within 30%. These measurements provide new insights on the interplay between hard scatterings and the associated UE in pp collisions.
The polarization of inclusive J/$\psi$ and $\Upsilon(1{\rm S})$ produced in Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm{NN}}}=5.02$ TeV at the LHC is measured with the ALICE detector. The study is carried out by reconstructing the quarkonium through its decay to muon pairs in the rapidity region $2.5<y<4$ and measuring the polar and azimuthal angular distributions of the muons. The polarization parameters $\lambda_{\theta}$, $\lambda_{\phi}$ and $\lambda_{\theta\phi}$ are measured in the helicity and Collins-Soper reference frames, in the transverse momentum interval $2<p_{\rm T}<10$ GeV/$c$ and $p_{\rm T}<15$ GeV/$c$ for the J/$\psi$ and $\Upsilon(1{\rm S})$, respectively. The polarization parameters for the J/$\psi$ are found to be compatible with zero, within a maximum of about two standard deviations at low $p_{\rm T}$, for both reference frames and over the whole $p_{\rm T}$ range. The values are compared with the corresponding results obtained for pp collisions at $\sqrt{s}=7$ and 8 TeV in a similar kinematic region by the ALICE and LHCb experiments. Although with much larger uncertainties, the polarization parameters for $\Upsilon(1{\rm S})$ production in Pb-Pb collisions are also consistent with zero.
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