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Aims.We have performed the first broadband study of Mrk 421 from radio to TeV gamma rays with simultaneous measurements of the X-ray polarization from IXPE. Methods.The data were collected as part of an extensive multiwavelength campaign carried out between May and June 2022 using MAGIC,Fermi-LAT,NuSTAR,XMM-Newton,Swift, and several optical and radio telescopes to complement IXPE data. Results.During the IXPE exposures, the measured 0.2–1 TeV flux was close to the quiescent state and ranged from 25% to 50% of the Crab Nebula without intra-night variability. Throughout the campaign, the very high-energy (VHE) and X-ray emission are positively correlated at a 4σsignificance level. The IXPE measurements reveal an X-ray polarization degree that is a factor of 2–5 higher than in the optical/radio bands; that implies an energy-stratified jet in which the VHE photons are emitted co-spatially with the X-rays, in the vicinity of a shock front. The June 2022 observations exhibit a rotation of the X-ray polarization angle. Despite no simultaneous VHE coverage being available during a large fraction of the swing, theSwift-XRT monitoring reveals an X-ray flux increase with a clear spectral hardening. This suggests that flares in high synchrotron peaked blazars can be accompanied by a polarization angle rotation, as observed in some flat spectrum radio quasars. Finally, during the polarization angle rotation,NuSTARdata reveal two contiguous spectral hysteresis loops in opposite directions (clockwise and counterclockwise), implying important changes in the particle acceleration efficiency on approximately hour timescales. 

Context.The nearby elliptical galaxy M87 contains one of only two supermassive black holes whose emission surrounding the event horizon has been imaged by the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT). In 2018, more than two dozen multi-wavelength (MWL) facilities (from radio toγ-ray energies) took part in the second M87 EHT campaign. Aims.The goal of this extensive MWL campaign was to better understand the physics of the accreting black hole M87*, the relationship between the inflow and inner jets, and the high-energy particle acceleration. Understanding the complex astrophysics is also a necessary first step towards performing further tests of general relativity. Methods.The MWL campaign took place in April 2018, overlapping with the EHT M87* observations. We present a new, contemporaneous spectral energy distribution (SED) ranging from radio to very high-energy (VHE)γ-rays as well as details of the individual observations and light curves. We also conducted phenomenological modelling to investigate the basic source properties. Results.We present the first VHEγ-ray flare from M87 detected since 2010. The flux above 350 GeV more than doubled within a period of ≈36 hours. We find that the X-ray flux is enhanced by about a factor of two compared to 2017, while the radio and millimetre core fluxes are consistent between 2017 and 2018. We detect evidence for a monotonically increasing jet position angle that corresponds to variations in the bright spot of the EHT image. Conclusions.Our results show the value of continued MWL monitoring together with precision imaging for addressing the origins of high-energy particle acceleration. While we cannot currently pinpoint the precise location where such acceleration takes place, the new VHEγ-ray flare already presents a challenge to simple one-zone leptonic emission model approaches, and it emphasises the need for combined image and spectral modelling. 

The ALICE Collaboration reports the measurement of semi-inclusive distributions of charged-particle jets recoiling from a high transverse momentum (high $p_{\mathrm{T}}$) hadron trigger in proton-proton and central Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}=5.02\mathrm{TeV}$. A data-driven statistical method is used to mitigate the large uncorrelated background in central Pb-Pb collisions. Recoil jet distributions are reported for jet resolution parameter $R=0.2$, 0.4, and 0.5 in the range $7<p_{\mathrm{T},\text{jet}}<140\mathrm{GeV}/c$and trigger-recoil jet azimuthal separation $\pi /2<\mathrm{\Delta }\phi <\pi$. The measurements exhibit a marked medium-induced jet yield enhancement at low $p_{\mathrm{T}}$and at large azimuthal deviation from $\mathrm{\Delta }\phi \sim \pi$. The enhancement is characterized by its dependence on $\mathrm{\Delta }\phi$, which has a slope that differs from zero by $4.7\sigma$. Comparisons to model calculations incorporating different formulations of jet quenching are reported. These comparisons indicate that the observed yield enhancement arises from the response of the QGP medium to jet propagation. © 2024 CERN, for the ALICE Collaboration2024CERN 

The ALICE Collaboration reports measurements of the semi-inclusive distribution of charged-particle jets recoiling from a high transverse momentum (high $p_{\mathrm{T}}$) charged hadron, in $pp$and central Pb-Pb collisions at center-of-mass energy per nucleon–nucleon collision $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}=5.02$TeV. The large uncorrelated background in central Pb-Pb collisions is corrected using a data-driven statistical approach which enables precise measurement of recoil jet distributions over a broad range in $p_{\mathrm{T},\mathrm{ch}\mathrm{jet}}$and jet resolution parameter $R$. Recoil jet yields are reported for $R=0.2$, 0.4, and 0.5 in the range $7<p_{\mathrm{T},\mathrm{ch}\mathrm{jet}}<140 \mathrm{GeV}/c$and $\pi /2<\mathrm{\Delta }\phi <\pi$, where $\mathrm{\Delta }\phi$is the azimuthal angular separation between hadron trigger and recoil jet. The low- $p_{\mathrm{T},\mathrm{ch}\mathrm{jet}}$reach of the measurement explores unique phase space for studying jet quenching, the interaction of jets with the quark–gluon plasma generated in high-energy nuclear collisions. Comparison of $p_{\mathrm{T},\mathrm{ch}\mathrm{jet}}$distributions from $pp$and central Pb-Pb collisions probes medium-induced jet energy loss and intra-jet broadening, while comparison of their acoplanarity distributions explores in-medium jet scattering and medium response. The measurements are compared to theoretical calculations incorporating jet quenching. ©2024 CERN, for the ALICE Collaboration2024CERN 

Measurements of the $p_{\mathrm{T}}$-dependent flow vector fluctuations in Pb–Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}=5.02\mathrm{TeV}$using azimuthal correlations with the ALICE experiment at the Large Hadron Collider are presented. A four-particle correlation approach [ALICE Collaboration, ] is used to quantify the effects of flow angle and magnitude fluctuations separately. This paper extends previous studies to additional centrality intervals and provides measurements of the $p_{\mathrm{T}}$-dependent flow vector fluctuations at $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}=5.02\mathrm{TeV}$with two-particle correlations. Significant $p_{\mathrm{T}}$-dependent fluctuations of the ${\vec{V}}_2$flow vector in Pb–Pb collisions are found across different centrality ranges, with the largest fluctuations of up to $\sim 15\%$being present in the 5% most central collisions. In parallel, no evidence of significant $p_{\mathrm{T}}$-dependent fluctuations of ${\vec{V}}_3$or ${\vec{V}}_4$is found. Additionally, evidence of flow angle and magnitude fluctuations is observed with more than $5\sigma$significance in central collisions. These observations in $\text{Pb–Pb}$collisions indicate where the classical picture of hydrodynamic modeling with a common symmetry plane breaks down. This has implications for hard probes at high $p_{\mathrm{T}}$, which might be biased by $p_{\mathrm{T}}$-dependent flow angle fluctuations of at least 23% in central collisions. Given the presented results, existing theoretical models should be reexamined to improve our understanding of initial conditions, quark–gluon plasma properties, and the dynamic evolution of the created system. ©2024 CERN, for the ALICE Collaboration2024CERN 

A<sc>bstract</sc> Results on the transverse spherocity dependence of light-flavor particle production (π, K, p,ϕ, K^*0,$$ {\textrm{K}}_{\textrm{S}}^0 $$ $K_S^0$, Λ, Ξ) at midrapidity in high-multiplicity pp collisions at$$ \sqrt{s} $$ $\sqrt{s}$= 13 TeV were obtained with the ALICE apparatus. The transverse spherocity estimator$$ \left({S}_{\textrm{O}}^{p_{\textrm{T}}=1}\right) $$ $\left(S_O^{p_T=1}\right)$categorizes events by their azimuthal topology. Utilizing narrow selections on$$ {S}_{\textrm{O}}^{p_{\textrm{T}}=1} $$ $S_O^{p_T=1}$, it is possible to contrast particle production in collisions dominated by many soft initial interactions with that observed in collisions dominated by one or more hard scatterings. Results are reported for two multiplicity estimators covering different pseudorapidity regions. The$$ {S}_{\textrm{O}}^{p_{\textrm{T}}=1} $$ $S_O^{p_T=1}$estimator is found to effectively constrain the hardness of the events when the midrapidity (|η| < 0.8) estimator is used. The production rates of strange particles are found to be slightly higher for soft isotropic topologies, and severely suppressed in hard jet-like topologies. These effects are more pronounced for hadrons with larger mass and strangeness content, and observed when the topological selection is done within a narrow multiplicity interval. This demonstrates that an important aspect of the universal scaling of strangeness enhancement with final-state multiplicity is that high-multiplicity collisions are dominated by soft, isotropic processes. On the contrary, strangeness production in events with jet-like processes is significantly reduced. The results presented in this article are compared with several QCD-inspired Monte Carlo event generators. Models that incorporate a two-component phenomenology, either through mechanisms accounting for string density, or thermal production, are able to describe the observed strangeness enhancement as a function of$$ {S}_{\textrm{O}}^{p_{\textrm{T}}=1} $$ $S_O^{p_T=1}$. 

A<sc>bstract</sc> The production yields of the Σ(1385)^±and Ξ(1530)⁰resonances are measured in pp collisions at$$ \sqrt{s} $$ $\sqrt{s}$= 13 TeV with ALICE. The measurements are performed as a function of the charged-particle multiplicity ⟨dN_ch/dη⟩, which is related to the energy density produced in the collision. The results include transverse momentum (p_T) distributions,p_T-integrated yields, mean transverse momenta of Σ(1385)^±and Ξ(1530)⁰, as well as ratios of thep_T-integrated resonance yields relative to yields of other hadron species. The Σ(1385)^±/π^±and Ξ(1530)⁰/π^±yield ratios are consistent with the trend of the enhancement of strangeness production from low to high multiplicity pp collisions, which was previously observed for strange and multi-strange baryons. The yield ratio between the measured resonances and the long-lived baryons with the same strangeness content exhibits a hint of a mild increasing trend at low multiplicity, despite too large uncertainties to exclude the flat behaviour. The results are compared with predictions from models such as EPOS-LHC and PYTHIA 8 with Rope shoving. The latter provides the best description of the multiplicity dependence of the Σ(1385)^±and Ξ(1530)⁰production in pp collisions at$$ \sqrt{s} $$ $\sqrt{s}$= 13 TeV. 

A<sc>bstract</sc> Measurements of inclusive charged-particle jet production in pp and p-Pb collisions at center-of-mass energy per nucleon-nucleon collision$$ \sqrt{s_{\textrm{NN}}} $$ $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}$= 5.02 TeV and the corresponding nuclear modification factor$$ {R}_{\textrm{pPb}}^{\textrm{ch}\ \textrm{jet}} $$ $R_{\mathrm{pPb}}^{\mathrm{ch}\mathrm{jet}}$are presented, using data collected with the ALICE detector at the LHC. Jets are reconstructed in the central rapidity region |η_jet|<0.5 from charged particles using the anti-k_Talgorithm with resolution parametersR= 0.2, 0.3, and 0.4. Thep_T-differential inclusive production cross section of charged-particle jets, as well as the corresponding cross section ratios, are reported for pp and p-Pb collisions in the transverse momentum range 10<$$ {p}_{\textrm{T},\textrm{jet}}^{\textrm{ch}} $$ $p_{T,\mathrm{jet}}^{\mathrm{ch}}$<140 GeV/cand 10<$$ {p}_{\textrm{T},\textrm{jet}}^{\textrm{ch}} $$ $p_{T,\mathrm{jet}}^{\mathrm{ch}}$<160 GeV/c, respectively, together with the nuclear modification factor$$ {R}_{\textrm{pPb}}^{\textrm{ch}\ \textrm{jet}} $$ $R_{\mathrm{pPb}}^{\mathrm{ch}\mathrm{jet}}$in the range 10<$$ {p}_{\textrm{T},\textrm{jet}}^{\textrm{ch}} $$ $p_{T,\mathrm{jet}}^{\mathrm{ch}}$<140 GeV/c. The analysis extends thep_Trange of the previously-reported charged-particle jet measurements by the ALICE Collaboration. The nuclear modification factor is found to be consistent with one and independent of the jet resolution parameter with the improved precision of this study, indicating that the possible influence of cold nuclear matter effects on the production cross section of charged-particle jets in p-Pb collisions at$$ \sqrt{s_{\textrm{NN}}} $$ $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}$= 5.02 TeV is smaller than the current precision. The obtained results are in agreement with other minimum bias jet measurements available for RHIC and LHC energies, and are well reproduced by the NLO perturbative QCD Powhegcalculations with parton shower provided by Pythia8 as well as by Jetscapesimulations. 

A<sc>bstract</sc> The ALICE Collaboration reports a search for jet quenching effects in high-multiplicity (HM) proton-proton collisions at$$ \sqrt{s} $$ $\sqrt{s}$= 13 TeV, using the semi-inclusive azimuthal-difference distribution ∆φof charged-particle jets recoiling from a high transverse momentum (high-p_T,trig) trigger hadron. Jet quenching may broaden the ∆φdistribution measured in HM events compared to that in minimum bias (MB) events. The measurement employs ap_T,trig-differential observable for data-driven suppression of the contribution of multiple partonic interactions, which is the dominant background. While azimuthal broadening is indeed observed in HM compared to MB events, similar broadening for HM events is observed for simulations based on the PYTHIA 8 Monte Carlo generator, which does not incorporate jet quenching. Detailed analysis of these data and simulations show that the azimuthal broadening is due to bias of the HM selection towards events with multiple jets in the final state. The identification of this bias has implications for all jet quenching searches where selection is made on the event activity. 

$K^{+}{K}^{-}$pairs may be produced in photonuclear collisions, either from the decays of photoproduced $\varphi \left(1020\right)$mesons or directly as nonresonant $K^{+}{K}^{-}$pairs. Measurements of $K^{+}{K}^{-}$photoproduction probe the couplings between the $\varphi \left(1020\right)$and charged kaons with photons and nuclear targets. The kaon-proton scattering occurs at energies far above those available elsewhere. We present the first measurement of coherent photoproduction of $K^{+}{K}^{-}$pairs on lead ions in ultraperipheral collisions using the ALICE detector, including the first investigation of direct $K^{+}{K}^{-}$production. There is significant $K^{+}{K}^{-}$production at low transverse momentum, consistent with coherent photoproduction on lead targets. In the mass range $1.1<M_{KK}<1.4\mathrm{GeV}/c^2$above the $\varphi \left(1020\right)$resonance, for rapidity $\left|y_{KK}\right|<0.8$and $p_{T,KK}<0.1\mathrm{GeV}/c$, the measured coherent photoproduction cross section is $\mathrm{d}\sigma /\mathrm{d}y=3.37\pm 0.61\left(\text{stat}\right)\pm 0.15\left(\mathrm{syst}\right)\mathrm{mb}$. The center-of-mass energy per nucleon of the photon-nucleus (Pb) system $W_{\gamma \mathrm{Pb},n}$ranges from 33 to 188 GeV, far higher than previous measurements on heavy-nucleus targets. The cross section is larger than expected for $\varphi \left(1020\right)$photoproduction alone. The mass spectrum is fit to a cocktail consisting of $\varphi \left(1020\right)$decays, direct $K^{+}{K}^{-}$photoproduction, and interference between the two. The confidence regions for the amplitude and relative phase angle for direct $K^{+}{K}^{-}$photoproduction are presented. © 2024 CERN, for the ALICE Collaboration2024CERN