We report on the first measurement of the triangular $v_3$, quadrangular $v_4$, and pentagonal $v_5$ charged particle flow in Pb-Pb collisions at 2.76 TeV measured with the ALICE detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. We show that the triangular flow can be described in terms of the initial spatial anisotropy and its fluctuations, which provides strong constraints on its origin. In the most central events, where the elliptic flow $v_2$ and $v_3$ have similar magnitude, a double peaked structure in the two-particle azimuthal correlations is observed, which is often interpreted as a Mach cone response to fast partons. We show that this structure can be naturally explained from the measured anisotropic flow Fourier coefficients.
v2{SP} (red filled circles).
v3{SP} (blue filled squares).
v4{SP} (purprle stars).
We report the first measurement of charged particle elliptic flow in Pb-Pb collisions at 2.76 TeV with the ALICE detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. The measurement is performed in the central pseudorapidity region (|$\eta$|<0.8) and transverse momentum range 0.2< $p_{\rm T}$< 5.0 GeV/$c$. The elliptic flow signal v$_2$, measured using the 4-particle correlation method, averaged over transverse momentum and pseudorapidity is 0.087 $\pm$ 0.002 (stat) $\pm$ 0.004 (syst) in the 40-50% centrality class. The differential elliptic flow v$_2(p_{\rm T})$ reaches a maximum of 0.2 near $p_{\rm T}$ = 3 GeV/$c$. Compared to RHIC Au-Au collisions at 200 GeV, the elliptic flow increases by about 30%. Some hydrodynamic model predictions which include viscous corrections are in agreement with the observed increase.
Transverse momentum dependence of v2 for centrality 40-50% from the 2- and 4-particle cumulant methods.
Transverse momentum dependence of v2{4} for centralities 10-20%, 20-30% and 30-40%.
Centrality dependence of elliptic flow, integrated over the pT range 0.2 < pT < 5.0 GeV, estimated with two- and multi-particle correlation techniques.
A measurement of the transverse momentum spectra of jets in Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}=2.76$ TeV is reported. Jets are reconstructed from charged particles using the anti-$k_{\rm T}$ jet algorithm with jet resolution parameters $R$ of $0.2$ and $0.3$ in pseudo-rapidity $|\eta|<0.5$. The transverse momentum $p_{\rm T}$ of charged particles is measured down to $0.15$ GeV/$c$ which gives access to the low $p_{\rm T}$ fragments of the jet. Jets found in heavy-ion collisions are corrected event-by-event for average background density and on an inclusive basis (via unfolding) for residual background fluctuations and detector effects. A strong suppression of jet production in central events with respect to peripheral events is observed. The suppression is found to be similar to the suppression of charged hadrons, which suggests that substantial energy is radiated at angles larger than the jet resolution parameter $R=0.3$ considered in the analysis. The fragmentation bias introduced by selecting jets with a high $p_{\rm T}$ leading particle, which rejects jets with a soft fragmentation pattern, has a similar effect on the jet yield for central and peripheral events. The ratio of jet spectra with $R=0.2$ and $R=0.3$ is found to be similar in Pb-Pb and simulated PYTHIA pp events, indicating no strong broadening of the radial jet structure in the reconstructed jets with $R<0.3$.
Average values of the number of participating nucleons (Npart), number of binary collisions (Ncoll), and the nuclear overlap function (TAA) for the centrality intervals used in the jet analysis.
Charged jet spectra using two cone radius parameters R = 0.2 and 0.3 and a leading track selection of pT > 0.15 GeV, for centrality 0-10%. The two systematic uncertainties correspond to the shape uncertainty and the correlated uncertainty.
Charged jet spectra using two cone radius parameters R = 0.2 and 0.3 and a leading track selection of pT > 0.15 GeV, for centrality 10-30%. The two systematic uncertainties correspond to the shape uncertainty and the correlated uncertainty.
Inclusive transverse momentum spectra of primary charged particles in Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{_{\rm NN}}}$ = 2.76 TeV have been measured by the ALICE Collaboration at the LHC. The data are presented for central and peripheral collisions, corresponding to 0-5% and 70-80% of the hadronic Pb-Pb cross section. The measured charged particle spectra in $|\eta|<0.8$ and $0.3 < p_T < 20$ GeV/$c$ are compared to the expectation in pp collisions at the same $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}$, scaled by the number of underlying nucleon-nucleon collisions. The comparison is expressed in terms of the nuclear modification factor $R_{\rm AA}$. The result indicates only weak medium effects ($R_{\rm AA} \approx $ 0.7) in peripheral collisions. In central collisions, $R_{\rm AA}$ reaches a minimum of about 0.14 at $p_{\rm T}=6$-7GeV/$c$ and increases significantly at larger $p_{\rm T}$. The measured suppression of high-$p_{\rm T}$ particles is stronger than that observed at lower collision energies, indicating that a very dense medium is formed in central Pb-Pb collisions at the LHC.
PT distributions of primary charged particles at mid-rapidity in central and peripheral PB-PB collisions.
PT distributions of primary charged particles at mid-rapidity in central and peripheral PB-PB collisions estimated from scaled PP data as described in the text of the paper.
Measurments of RAA, the nuclear modification factor (rate of PB-PB to P P cross section) in the central region.
The yield of charged particles associated with high-$p_{\rm T}$ trigger particles ($8 < p_{\rm T} < 15$ GeV/$c$) is measured with the ALICE detector in Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}$ = 2.76 TeV relative to proton-proton collisions at the same energy. The conditional per-trigger yields are extracted from the narrow jet-like correlation peaks in azimuthal di-hadron correlations. In the 5% most central collisions, we observe that the yield of associated charged particles with transverse momenta $p_{\rm T}> 3$ GeV/$c$ on the away-side drops to about 60% of that observed in pp collisions, while on the near-side a moderate enhancement of 20-30% is found.
The ratio of near-side yields in Lead-Lead/Proton-Proton collisions in the central region.
The ratio of near-side yields in Lead-Lead/Proton-Proton collisions in the peripheral region.
The ratio of away-side yields in Lead-Lead/Proton-Proton collisions in the central region.
The elliptic, $v_2$, triangular, $v_3$, and quadrangular, $v_4$, azimuthal anisotropic flow coefficients are measured for unidentified charged particles, pions and (anti-)protons in Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}} = 2.76$ TeV with the ALICE detector at the Large Hadron Collider. Results obtained with the event plane and four-particle cumulant methods are reported for the pseudo-rapidity range $|\eta|<0.8$ at different collision centralities and as a function of transverse momentum, $p_{\rm T}$, out to $p_{\rm T}=20$ GeV/$c$. The observed non-zero elliptic and triangular flow depends only weakly on transverse momentum for $p_{\rm T}>8$ GeV/$c$. The small $p_{\rm T}$ dependence of the difference between elliptic flow results obtained from the event plane and four-particle cumulant methods suggests a common origin of flow fluctuations up to $p_{\rm T}=8$ GeV/$c$. The magnitude of the (anti-)proton elliptic and triangular flow is larger than that of pions out to at least $p_{\rm T}=8$ GeV/$c$ indicating that the particle type dependence persists out to high $p_{\rm T}$.
Elliptic flow (v2) estimated with Event Plane method (with eta gap of 2.0) measured for unidentified charged particles as a function of transverse momentum for various centrality classes.
Elliptic flow (v2) estimated with four-particle cumulants measured for unidentified charged particles as a function of transverse momentum for various centrality classes.
Triangular flow (v3) estimated with Event Plane method (with eta gap of 2.0) measured for unidentified charged particles as a function of transverse momentum for various centrality classes.
The centrality dependence of the charged-particle multiplicity density at mid-rapidity in Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}$ = 2.76 TeV is presented. The charged-particle density normalized per participating nucleon pair increases by about a factor 2 from peripheral (70-80%) to central (0-5%) collisions. The centrality dependence is found to be similar to that observed at lower collision energies. The data are compared with models based on different mechanisms for particle production in nuclear collisions.
The charged particle multiplicity density measurements for the nine centrality classes. Also given are the mean values of NPART, the number of participating nucleon pairs calulcated fromthe Glauber model. The errors shown are the systematic errors, with the statistical errors being small.
The dependence of the charged particle multiplicity density on the number of participants in the collisions.
The effect of event background fluctuations on charged particle jet reconstruction in Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}} = 2.76$ TeV has been measured with the ALICE experiment. The main sources of non-statistical fluctuations are characterized based purely on experimental data with an unbiased method, as well as by using single high $p_{\rm T}$ particles and simulated jets embedded into real Pb-Pb events and reconstructed with the anti-$k_{\rm T}$ jet finder. The influence of a low transverse momentum cut-off on particles used in the jet reconstruction is quantified by varying the minimum track $p_{\rm T}$ between 0.15 GeV/$c$ and 2 GeV/$c$. For embedded jets reconstructed from charged particles with $p_{\rm T} > 0.15$ GeV/$c$, the uncertainty in the reconstructed jet transverse momentum due to the heavy-ion background is measured to be 11.3 GeV/$c$ (standard deviation) for the 10% most central Pb-Pb collisions, slightly larger than the value of 11.0 GeV/$c$ measured using the unbiased method. For a higher particle transverse momentum threshold of 2 GeV/$c$, which will generate a stronger bias towards hard fragmentation in the jet finding process, the standard deviation of the fluctuations in the reconstructed jet transverse momentum is reduced to 4.8-5.0 GeV/$c$ for the 10% most central events. A non-Gaussian tail of the momentum uncertainty is observed and its impact on the reconstructed jet spectrum is evaluated for varying particle momentum thresholds, by folding the measured fluctuations with steeply falling spectra.
DeltaPT of random cones in the 10% most central events for three types of random cone probes with a minimum track PT of 0.15 GeV. (1) sampling all the events, (2) avoiding overlap with the leading jet candidate in the event and (3) after randomizing the (ETA,PHI) direction of the tracks hence destroying any correlations.
DeltaPT of random cones in the 10% most central events for three regions with a minimum track PT of 0.15 GeV. (1) the in-plane orientation where the angle between the reconstructed event plane and the random cone axis is < 30 degrees, (2) the out-of plane orientation where this angle is > 60 degrees and (3) the intermediate region where this angle is between 30 and 60 degrees.
Dependence of the standard deviation on the uncorrected charged particle multiplicity. As in figure 2 the data are given for three different random cone probes: (1) sampling all the events, (2) avoiding overlap with the leading jet candidate in the event and (3) after randomizing the (ETA,PHI) direction of the tracks hence destroying any correlations.
We report on results obtained with the Event Shape Engineering technique applied to Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_\rm{NN}}=2.76$ TeV. By selecting events in the same centrality interval, but with very different average flow, different initial state conditions can be studied. We find the effect of the event-shape selection on the elliptic flow coefficient $v_2$ to be almost independent of transverse momentum $p_\rm{T}$, as expected if this effect is due to fluctuations in the initial geometry of the system. Charged hadron, pion, kaon, and proton transverse momentum distributions are found to be harder in events with higher-than-average elliptic flow, indicating an interplay between radial and elliptic flow.
Ratio of $\rm v_{2}\{{SP}\}$ in the $\rm large-q_{2}^{TPC}$ to unbiased sample, centrality 0-5%.
Ratio of $\rm v_{2}\{{SP}\}$ in the $\rm small-q_{2}^{TPC}$ to unbiased sample, centrality 0-5%.
Ratio of $\rm v_{2}\{{SP}\}$ in the $\rm large-q_{2}^{V0C}$ to unbiased sample, centrality 0-5%.
We report the measurements of correlations between event-by-event fluctuations of amplitudes of anisotropic flow harmonics in nucleus-nucleus collisions, obtained for the first time using a new analysis method based on multiparticle cumulants in mixed harmonics. This novel method is robust against systematic biases originating from non-flow effects and by construction any dependence on symmetry planes is eliminated. We demonstrate that correlations of flow harmonics exhibit a better sensitivity to medium properties than the individual flow harmonics. The new measurements are performed in Pb-Pb collisions at the centre-of-mass energy per nucleon pair of $\sqrt{s_{_{\rm NN}}}=2.76$ TeV by the ALICE experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). The centrality dependence of correlation between event-by-event fluctuations of the elliptic, $v_2$, and quadrangular, $v_4$, flow harmonics, as well as of anti-correlation between $v_2$ and triangular, $v_3$, flow harmonics are presented. The results cover two different regimes of the initial state configurations: geometry-dominated (in mid-central collisions) and fluctuation-dominated (in the most central collisions). Comparisons are made to predictions from MC-Glauber, viscous hydrodynamics, AMPT and HIJING models. Together with the existing measurements of individual flow harmonics the presented results provide further constraints on initial conditions and the transport properties of the system produced in heavy-ion collisions.
Centrality dependence of observables SC(4,2) and SC(3,2) in Pb-Pb collisions at 2.76 TeV.
Centrality dependence of normalized observables SC(4,2) and SC(3,2) in Pb-Pb collisions at 2.76 TeV.
Centrality dependence of observables SC(4,2) and SC(3,2) in Pb-Pb collisions at 2.76 TeV, in 0-10% most central collisions.
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