The multiplicity dependence of electron production from heavy-flavour hadron decays as a function of transverse momentum was measured in p-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}$ = 5.02 TeV using the ALICE detector at the LHC. The measurement was performed in the centre-of-mass rapidity interval $-1.07 < y_{\rm cms} < 0.14$ and transverse momentum interval 2 $< p_{\rm T} <$ 16 GeV/$c$. The multiplicity dependence of the production of electrons from heavy-flavour hadron decays was studied by comparing the $p_{\rm T}$ spectra measured for different multiplicity classes with those measured in pp collisions ($Q_{\rm pPb}$) and in peripheral p-Pb collisions ($Q_{\rm CP}$). The $Q_{\rm pPb}$ results obtained are consistent with unity within uncertainties in the measured $p_{\rm T}$ interval and event classes. This indicates that heavy-flavour decay electron production is consistent with binary scaling and independent of the geometry of the collision system. Additionally, the results suggest that cold nuclear matter effects are negligible within uncertainties, in the production of heavy-flavour decay electrons at midrapidity in p-Pb collisions.
The differential invariant yield as a function of transverse momentum ($p_\mathrm{T}$) of electrons from semileptonic heavy-flavour hadron decays was measured at midrapidity in central (0-10%), semi-central (30-50%) and peripheral (60-80%) lead-lead (Pb-Pb) collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}=5.02\text{ TeV}$ in the $p_{\mathrm{T}}$ intervals 0.5-26 GeV/$c$ (0-10% and 30-50%) and 0.5-10 GeV/$c$ (60-80%). The production cross section in proton-proton (pp) collisions at $\sqrt{s}=5.02$ TeV was measured as well in $0.5<p_\mathrm{T}<10$ GeV/$c$ and it lies close to the upper band of perturbative QCD calculation uncertainties up to $p_\mathrm{T}=5$ GeV/$c$ and close to the mean value for larger $p_\mathrm{T}$. The modification of the electron yield with respect to what is expected for an incoherent superposition of nucleon-nucleon collisions is evaluated by measuring the nuclear modification factor $R_{\mathrm{AA}}$. The measurement of the $R_{\mathrm{AA}}$ in different centrality classes allows in-medium energy loss of charm and beauty quarks to be investigated. The $R_{\mathrm{AA}}$ shows a suppression with respect to unity at intermediate $p_\mathrm{T}$, which increases while moving towards more central collisions. Moreover, the measured $R_{\mathrm{AA}}$ is sensitive to the modification of the parton distribution functions (PDF) in nuclei, like nuclear shadowing, which causes a suppression of the heavy-quark production at low $p_\mathrm{T}$ in heavy-ion collisions at LHC.
The measurement of the production of charm jets, identified by the presence of a ${\rm D^0}$ meson in the jet constituents, is presented in proton-proton collisions at centre-of-mass energies of $\sqrt{s}$ = 5.02 and 13 TeV with the ALICE detector at the CERN LHC. The ${\rm D^0}$ mesons were reconstructed from their hadronic decay ${\rm D^0} \rightarrow {\rm K^-}\pi^+$ and the respective charge conjugate. Jets were reconstructed from ${\rm D^0}$-meson candidates and charged particles using the anti-$k_{\rm T}$ algorithm, in the jet transverse momentum range $5<p_{\rm T;chjet}<50$ GeV/$c$, pseudorapidity $|\eta_{\rm jet}| <0.9-R$, and with the jet resolution parameters $R$ = 0.2, 0.4, 0.6. The distribution of the jet momentum fraction carried by a ${\rm D^0}$ meson along the jet axis ($z^{\rm ch}_{||}$) was measured in the range $0.4 < z^{\rm ch}_{||} < 1.0$ in four ranges of the jet transverse momentum. Comparisons of results for different collision energies and jet resolution parameters are also presented. The measurements are compared to predictions from Monte Carlo event generators based on leading-order and next-to-leading-order perturbative quantum chromodynamics calculations. A generally good description of the main features of the data is obtained in spite of a few discrepancies at low $p_{\rm T;chjet}$. Measurements were also done for $R = 0.3$ at $\sqrt{s}$ = 5.02 TeV and are shown along with their comparisons to theoretical predictions in an appendix to this paper.
The ALICE Collaboration has measured the energy dependence of exclusive photoproduction of $J/\psi$ vector mesons off proton targets in ultra-peripheral p-Pb collisions at a centre-of-mass energy per nucleon pair $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}} = 5.02$ TeV. The e$^+$e$^-$ and $\mu^+\mu^-$ decay channels are used to measure the cross section as a function of the rapidity of the $J/\psi$ in the range $-2.5 < y < 2.7$, corresponding to an energy in the $\gamma$p centre-of-mass in the interval $40 < W_{\gamma\mathrm{p}}<550$ GeV. The measurements, which are consistent with a power law dependence of the exclusive $J/\psi$ photoproduction cross section, are compared to previous results from HERA and the LHC and to several theoretical models. They are found to be compatible with previous measurements.
The ratios of yields of anti-baryons to baryons probes the mechanisms of baryon-number transport. Results for $\bar{\rm p}/{\rm p}$, $\bar{\rm \Lambda}/{\rm \Lambda}$, $\rm\bar{\Xi}$$^{+}/{\rm \Xi}^{-}$ and $\rm\bar{\Omega}$$^{+}/{\rm \Omega}^{-}$ in pp collisions at $\sqrt{s} = 0.9$, 2.76 and 7 TeV, measured with the ALICE detector at the LHC, are reported. Within the experimental uncertainties and ranges covered by our measurement, these ratios are independent of rapidity, transverse momentum and multiplicity for all measured energies. The results are compared to expectations from event generators, such as PYTHIA and HIJING-B, that are used to model the particle production in pp collisions. The energy dependence of $\bar{\rm p}/{\rm p}$, $\bar{\rm \Lambda}/{\rm \Lambda}$, $\rm\bar{\Xi}$$^{+}/{\rm \Xi^{-}}$ and $\rm\bar{\Omega}$$^{+}/{\rm \Omega^{-}}$, reaching values compatible with unity for $\sqrt{s} = 7$ TeV, complement the earlier $\bar{\rm p}/{\rm p}$ measurement of ALICE. These dependencies can be described by exchanges with the Regge-trajectory intercept of $\alpha_{\rm {J}} \approx 0.5$, which are suppressed with increasing rapidity interval ${\rm \Delta} y$. Any significant contribution of an exchange not suppressed at large ${\rm \Delta} y$ (reached at LHC energies) is disfavoured.
Charged jet production cross sections in p-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}} = 5.02$ TeV measured with the ALICE detector at the LHC are presented. Using the anti-$k_{\rm T}$ algorithm, jets have been reconstructed in the central rapidity region from charged particles with resolution parameters $R = 0.2$ and $R = 0.4$. The reconstructed jets have been corrected for detector effects and the underlying event background. To calculate the nuclear modification factor, $R_{\rm pPb}$, of charged jets in p-Pb collisions, a pp reference was constructed by scaling previously measured charged jet spectra at $\sqrt{s} = 7$ TeV. In the transverse momentum range $20 \le p_{\rm T,ch\ jet} \le 120$ GeV/$c$, $R_{\rm pPb}$ is found to be consistent with unity, indicating the absence of strong nuclear matter effects on jet production. Major modifications to the radial jet structure are probed via the ratio of jet production cross sections reconstructed with the two different resolution parameters. This ratio is found to be similar to the measurement in pp collisions at $\sqrt{s} = 7$ TeV and to the expectations from PYTHIA pp simulations and NLO pQCD calculations at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}} = 5.02$ TeV.
We present the first wide-range measurement of the charged-particle pseudorapidity density distribution, for different centralities (the 0-5%, 5-10%, 10-20%, and 20-30% most central events) in Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}} = 2.76$ TeV at the LHC. The measurement is performed using the full coverage of the ALICE detectors, $-5.0 < \eta < 5.5$, and employing a special analysis technique based on collisions arising from LHC "satellite" bunches. We present the pseudorapidity density as a function of the number of participating nucleons as well as an extrapolation to the total number of produced charged particles ($N_{\rm ch} = 17165 \pm 772$ for the 0-5% most central collisions). From the measured ${\rm d}N_{\rm ch}/{\rm d}\eta$ distribution we derive the rapidity density distribution, ${\rm d}N_{\rm ch}/{\rm d}y$, under simple assumptions. The rapidity density distribution is found to be significantly wider than the predictions of the Landau model. We assess the validity of longitudinal scaling by comparing to lower energy results from RHIC. Finally the mechanisms of the underlying particle production are discussed based on a comparison with various theoretical models.
The production of $\Upsilon$ mesons in Pb-Pb collisions at a centre-of-mass energy per nucleon pair $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}$ = 5 TeV is measured with the muon spectrometer of the ALICE detector at the LHC. The yields as well as the nuclear modification factors are determined in the forward rapidity region $2.5<y<4.0$, as a function of rapidity, transverse momentum and collision centrality. The results show that the production of the $\Upsilon$(1S) meson is suppressed by a factor of about three with respect to the production in proton-proton collisions. For the first time, a significant signal for the $\Upsilon$(2S) meson is observed at forward rapidity, indicating a suppression stronger by about a factor 2-3 with respect to the ground state. The measurements are compared with transport, hydrodynamic, comover and statistical hadronisation model calculations.
We report on the production of inclusive $\Upsilon$(1S) and $\Upsilon$(2S) in p-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}=5.02$ TeV at the LHC. The measurement is performed with the ALICE detector at backward ($-4.46< y_{{\rm cms}}<-2.96$) and forward ($2.03< y_{{\rm cms}}<3.53$) rapidity down to zero transverse momentum. The production cross sections of the $\Upsilon$(1S) and $\Upsilon$(2S) are presented, as well as the nuclear modification factor and the ratio of the forward to backward yields of $\Upsilon$(1S). A suppression of the inclusive $\Upsilon$(1S) yield in p-Pb collisions with respect to the yield from pp collisions scaled by the number of binary nucleon-nucleon collisions is observed at forward rapidity but not at backward rapidity. The results are compared to theoretical model calculations including nuclear shadowing or partonic energy loss effects.
We present the first measurement at the LHC of exclusive J/$\psi$ photoproduction off protons, in ultra-peripheral proton-lead collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}=5.02$ TeV. Events are selected with a dimuon pair produced either in the rapidity interval, in the laboratory frame, $2.5<y<4$ (p-Pb) or $-3.6<y<-2.6$ (Pb--p), and no other particles observed in the ALICE acceptance. The measured cross sections $\sigma (\gamma + {\rm p} \rightarrow J/\psi + {\rm p})$ are 33.2 $\pm$ 2.2 (stat) $\pm$ 3.1 (syst) $\pm$ 0.7 (theo) nb in p-Pb and 284 $\pm$ 36 (stat) $^{+27}_{-32}$ (syst) $\pm$ 26 (theo) nb in Pb-p collisions. We measure this process up to about 700 GeV in the $\gamma {\rm p}$ centre-of-mass, which is a factor of two larger than the highest energy studied at HERA. The data are consistent with a power law dependence of the $J/\psi$ photoproduction cross section in $\gamma {\rm p}$ energies from about 20 to 700 GeV, or equivalently, from Bjorken-$x$ between $\sim 2\times 10^{-2}$ to $\sim 2\times 10^{-5}$, thus indicating no significant change in the gluon density behaviour of the proton between HERA and LHC energies.