Search for: All records

Abstract The femtoscopic study of pairs of identical pions is particularly suited to investigate the effective source function of particle emission, due to the resulting Bose–Einstein correlation signal. In small collision systems at the LHC, pp in particular, the majority of the pions are produced in resonance decays, which significantly affect the profile and size of the source. In this work, we explicitly model this effect in order to extract the primordial source in pp collisions at$$\sqrt{s}~=~13$$ $\sqrt{s}=13$ TeV from charged$$\uppi $$ $\pi$–$$\uppi $$ $\pi$correlations measured by ALICE. We demonstrate that the assumption of a Gaussian primordial source is compatible with the data and that the effective source, resulting from modifications due to resonances, is approximately exponential, as found in previous measurements at the LHC. The universality of hadron emission in pp collisions is further investigated by applying the same methodology to characterize the primordial source of$$\textrm{K}$$ $\text{K}$–$$\textrm{p}$$ $\text{p}$ pairs. The size of the primordial source is evaluated as a function of the transverse mass ($$m_{\textrm{T}}$$ $m_{\text{T}}$) of the pairs, leading to the observation of a common scaling for both$$\uppi $$ $\pi$–$$\uppi $$ $\pi$and$$\textrm{K}$$ $\text{K}$–$$\textrm{p}$$ $\text{p}$ , suggesting a collective effect. Further, the present results are compatible with the$$m_{\textrm{T}}$$ $m_{\text{T}}$scaling of the$$\textrm{p}$$ $\text{p}$–$$\textrm{p}$$ $\text{p}$ and p$$-\Lambda $$ $-\Lambda$primordial source measured by ALICE in high multiplicity pp collisions, providing additional evidence for the presence of a common emission source for all hadrons in small collision systems at the LHC. This will allow the determination of the source function for any hadron–hadron pairs with high precision, granting access to the properties of the possible final-state interaction among pairs of less abundantly produced hadrons, such as strange or charmed particles. 

Abstract The first measurement of the multiplicity dependence of intra-jet properties of leading charged-particle jets in proton–proton (pp) collisions is reported. The mean charged-particle multiplicity and jet fragmentation distributions are measured in minimum-bias and high-multiplicity pp collisions at center-of-mass energy$$\sqrt{s}$$ $\sqrt{s}$= 13 TeV using the ALICE detector. Jets are reconstructed from charged particles produced in the midrapidity region ($$|\eta | < 0.9$$ $\left|\eta \right|<0.9$) using the sequential recombination anti-$$k_{\textrm{T}}$$ $k_{\text{T}}$algorithm with jet resolution parametersR= 0.2, 0.3, and 0.4 for the transverse momentum ($$p_\textrm{T}$$ $p_{\text{T}}$) interval 5–110 GeV/c. The high-multiplicity events are selected by the forward V0 scintillator detectors. The mean charged-particle multiplicity inside the leading jet cone rises monotonically with increasing jet$$p_\textrm{T}$$ $p_{\text{T}}$in qualitative agreement with previous measurements at lower energies. The distributions of jet fragmentation function variables$$z^{\textrm{ch}}$$ $z^{\text{ch}}$and$$\xi ^{\textrm{ch}}$$ ${\xi }^{\text{ch}}$are measured for different jet-$$p_\textrm{T}$$ $p_{\text{T}}$intervals. Jet-$$p_\textrm{T}$$ $p_{\text{T}}$independent fragmentation of leading jets is observed for wider jets except at high- and low-$$z^{\textrm{ch}}$$ $z^{\text{ch}}$values. The observed “hump-backed plateau” structure in the$$\xi ^{\textrm{ch}}$$ ${\xi }^{\text{ch}}$distribution indicates suppression of low-$$p_\textrm{T}$$ $p_{\text{T}}$particles. In high-multiplicity events, an enhancement of the fragmentation probability of low-$$z^{\textrm{ch}}$$ $z^{\text{ch}}$particles accompanied by a suppression of high-$$z^{\textrm{ch}}$$ $z^{\text{ch}}$particles is observed compared to minimum-bias events. This behavior becomes more prominent for low-$$p_\textrm{T}$$ $p_{\text{T}}$jets with larger jet radius. The results are compared with predictions of QCD-inspired event generators, PYTHIA 8 with Monash 2013 tune and EPOS LHC. It is found that PYTHIA 8 qualitatively reproduces the jet modification in high-multiplicity events except at high jet$$p_\textrm{T}$$ $p_{\text{T}}$. These measurements provide important constraints to models of jet fragmentation. 

A<sc>bstract</sc> Thep_T-differential production cross sections of non-prompt D⁰, D⁺, and$$ {\textrm{D}}_{\textrm{s}}^{+} $$ $D_s^{+}$mesons originating from beauty-hadron decays are measured in proton–proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy$$ \sqrt{s} $$ $\sqrt{s}$= 13 TeV. The measurements are performed at midrapidity, |y|<0.5, with the data sample collected by ALICE from 2016 to 2018. The results are in agreement with predictions from several perturbative QCD calculations. The fragmentation fraction of beauty quarks to strange mesons divided by the one to non-strange mesons,f_s/(f_u+f_d), is found to be 0.114 ± 0.016 (stat.) ± 0.006 (syst.) ± 0.003 (BR) ± 0.003 (extrap.). This value is compatible with previous measurements at lower centre-of-mass energies and in different collision systems in agreement with the assumption of universality of fragmentation functions. In addition, the dependence of the non-prompt D meson production on the centre-of-mass energy is investigated by comparing the results obtained at$$ \sqrt{s} $$ $\sqrt{s}$= 5.02 and 13 TeV, showing a hardening of the non-prompt D-mesonp_T-differential production cross section at higher$$ \sqrt{s} $$ $\sqrt{s}$. Finally, the$$ \textrm{b}\overline{\textrm{b}} $$ $b\overline{b}$production cross section per unit of rapidity at midrapidity is calculated from the non-prompt D⁰, D⁺,$$ {\textrm{D}}_{\textrm{s}}^{+} $$ $D_s^{+}$, and$$ {\Lambda}_{\textrm{c}}^{+} $$ ${\Lambda }_c^{+}$hadron measurements, obtaining$$ \textrm{d}\sigma /\textrm{d}y=75.2\pm 3.2\left(\textrm{stat}.\right)\pm 5.2{\left(\textrm{syst}.\right)}_{-3.2}^{+12.3}\left(\textrm{extrap}.\right) $$ $d\sigma /dy=75.2\pm 3.2\left(\text{stat}.\right)\pm 5.2{\left(\text{syst}.\right)}_{-3.2}^{+12.3}\left(\text{extrap}.\right)$μb. 

A<sc>bstract</sc> The angular correlations between charged Ξ baryons and associated identified hadrons (pions, kaons, protons, Λ baryons, and Ξ baryons) are measured in pp collisions at$$ \sqrt{s} $$ $\sqrt{s}$= 13 TeV with the ALICE detector to give insight into the particle production mechanisms and balancing of quantum numbers on the microscopic level. In particular, the distribution of strangeness is investigated in the correlations between the doubly-strange Ξ baryon and mesons and baryons that contain a single strange quark, K and Λ. As a reference, the results are compared to Ξπand Ξp correlations, where the associated mesons and baryons do not contain a strange valence quark. These measurements are expected to be sensitive to whether strangeness is produced through string breaking or in a thermal production scenario. Furthermore, the multiplicity dependence of the correlation functions is measured to look for the turn-on of additional particle production mechanisms with event activity. The results are compared to predictions from the string-breaking model Pythia8, including tunes with baryon junctions and rope hadronisation enabled, the cluster hadronisation model Herwig7, and the core-corona model Epos-lhc. While some aspects of the experimental data are described quantitatively or qualitatively by the Monte Carlo models, no model can match all features of the data. These results provide stringent constraints on the strangeness and baryon number production mechanisms in pp collisions. 

Deuterons are atomic nuclei composed of a neutron and a proton held together by the strong interaction. Unbound ensembles composed of a deuteron and a third nucleon have been investigated in the past using scattering experiments, and they constitute a fundamental reference in nuclear physics to constrain nuclear interactions and the properties of nuclei. In this work, $K^{+}\text{−}d$and $p\text{−}d$femtoscopic correlations measured by the ALICE Collaboration in proton-proton ( $pp$) collisions at $\sqrt{s}=13\mathrm{TeV}$at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) are presented. It is demonstrated that correlations in momentum space between deuterons and kaons or protons allow us to study three-hadron systems at distances comparable with the proton radius. The analysis of the $K^{+}\text{−}d$correlation shows that the relative distances at which deuterons and protons or kaons are produced are around 2 fm. The analysis of the $p\text{−}d$correlation shows that only a full three-body calculation that accounts for the internal structure of the deuteron can explain the data. In particular, the sensitivity of the observable to the short-range part of the interaction is demonstrated. These results indicate that correlations involving light nuclei in $pp$collisions at the LHC will also provide access to any three-body system in the strange and charm sectors. Published by the American Physical Society2024 

A<sc>bstract</sc> The azimuthal anisotropy of particles associated with jets (jet particles) at midrapidity is measured for the first time in p-Pb and Pb-Pb collisions at$$ \sqrt{{\textrm{s}}_{\textrm{NN}}} $$ $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}$= 5.02 TeV down to transverse momentum (p_T) of 0.5 GeV/cand 2 GeV/c, respectively, with ALICE. The results obtained in p-Pb collisions are based on a novel three-particle correlation technique. The azimuthal anisotropy coefficientv₂in high-multiplicity p-Pb collisions is positive, with a significance reaching 6.8σat lowp_T, and its magnitude is smaller than in semicentral Pb-Pb collisions. In contrast to the measurements in Pb-Pb collisions, thev₂coefficient is also found independent ofp_Twithin uncertainties. Comparisons with the inclusive charged-particlev₂and with AMPT calculations are discussed. The predictions suggest that parton interactions play an important role in generating a non-zero jet-particlev₂in p-Pb collisions, even though they overestimate the reported measurement. These observations shed new insights on the understanding of the origin of the collective behaviour of jet particles in small systems such as p-Pb collisions, and provide significant stringent new constraints to models. 

The two-particle momentum correlation functions between charm mesons ( ${\mathrm{D}}^{*\pm }$and ${\mathrm{D}}^{\pm }$) and charged light-flavor mesons ( ${\pi }^{\pm }$and ${\mathrm{K}}^{\pm }$) in all charge combinations are measured for the first time by the ALICE Collaboration in high-multiplicity proton–proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of $\sqrt{s}=13\mathrm{TeV}$. For DK and ${\mathrm{D}}^{*}\mathrm{K}$pairs, the experimental results are in agreement with theoretical predictions of the residual strong interaction based on quantum chromodynamics calculations on the lattice and chiral effective field theory. In the case of $\mathrm{D}\pi$and ${\mathrm{D}}^{*}\pi$pairs, tension between the calculations including strong interactions and the measurement is observed. For all particle pairs, the data can be adequately described by Coulomb interaction only, indicating a shallow interaction between charm and light-flavor mesons. Finally, the scattering lengths governing the residual strong interaction of the $\mathrm{D}\pi$and ${\mathrm{D}}^{*}\pi$systems are determined by fitting the experimental correlation functions with a model that employs a Gaussian potential. The extracted values are small and compatible with zero. © 2024 CERN, for the ALICE Collaboration2024CERN 

This Letter presents the most precise measurement to date of the matter-antimatter imbalance at midrapidity in Pb-Pb collisions at a center-of-mass energy per nucleon pair $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}=5.02\mathrm{TeV}$. Using the Statistical Hadronization framework, it is possible to obtain the value of the electric charge and baryon chemical potentials, ${\mu }_Q=-0.18\pm 0.90\mathrm{MeV}$and ${\mu }_B=0.71\pm 0.45\mathrm{MeV}$, with unprecedented precision. A centrality-differential study of the antiparticle-to-particle yield ratios of charged pions, protons, $\mathrm{\Omega }$baryons, and light (hyper)nuclei is performed. These results indicate that the system created in Pb-Pb collisions at the LHC is on average baryon-free and electrically neutral at midrapidity. © 2024 CERN, for the ALICE Collaboration2024CERN 

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