The ALICE experiment at CERN will undergo a major upgrade in the second Long LHC Shutdown in the years 2018–2019; this upgrade includes the full replacement of the Inner Tracking System (ITS), ...deploying seven layers of Monolithic Active Pixel Sensors (MAPS). For the development of the new ALICE ITS, the Tower-Jazz 0.18μm CMOS imaging sensor process has been chosen as it is possible to use full CMOS in the pixel and different silicon wafers (including high resistivity epitaxial layers). A large test campaign has been carried out on several small prototype chips, designed to optimize the pixel sensor layout and the front-end electronics. Results match the target requirements both in terms of performance and of radiation hardness. Following this development, the first full scale chips have been designed, submitted and are currently under test, with promising results. A telescope composed of 4 planes of Mimosa-28 and 2 planes of Mimosa-18 chips is under development at the DAFNE Beam Test Facility (BTF) at the INFN Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati (LNF) in Italy with the final goal to perform a comparative test of the full scale prototypes. The telescope has been recently used to test a Mimosa-22THRb chip (a monolithic pixel sensor built in the 0.18μm Tower-Jazz process) and we foresee to perform tests on the full scale chips for the ALICE ITS upgrade at the beginning of 2015. In this contribution we will describe some first measurements of spatial resolution, fake hit rate and detection efficiency of the Mimosa-22THRb chip obtained at the BTF facility in June 2014 with an electron beam of 500MeV.
Transverse momentum spectra of π±, K± and p(p¯) up to pT=20 GeV/c at mid-rapidity in pp, peripheral (60–80%) and central (0–5%) Pb–Pb collisions at sNN=2.76 TeV have been measured using the ALICE ...detector at the Large Hadron Collider. The proton-to-pion and the kaon-to-pion ratios both show a distinct peak at pT≈3 GeV/c in central Pb–Pb collisions. Below the peak, pT<3 GeV/c, both ratios are in good agreement with hydrodynamical calculations, suggesting that the peak itself is dominantly the result of radial flow rather than anomalous hadronization processes. For pT>10 GeV/c particle ratios in pp and Pb–Pb collisions are in agreement and the nuclear modification factors for π±, K± and p(p¯) indicate that, within the systematic and statistical uncertainties, the suppression is the same. This suggests that the chemical composition of leading particles from jets in the medium is similar to that of vacuum jets.
The features of the 180nm TowerJazz 1 CMOS technology allow for the first time the use of CMOS Monolithic Active Pixel Sensors (MAPS) under the harsh operational conditions of the LHC experiments. ...The stringent requirements of the ALICE Inner Tracking System (ITS) in terms of material budget, radiation hardness, readout speed and a low power consumption have thus lead to the choice of MAPS as baseline technology option for the recently approved upgrade of the ITS and are the key drivers for R&D efforts on basic transistor and Explorer and MIMOSA pixel sensor prototypes produced in TowerJazz technology. Though the radiation loads expected for the ITS are below those of ATLAS and CMS, it is however necessary to assess the radiation hardness for ITS MAPS prototypes. Total Ionizing Dose (TID) radiation hardness has been established for basic transistor structures using a 60keV X-ray machine. The main operational characteristics and detection properties such as noise, charge collection efficiency and signal over noise ratio of Explorer-0 and MIMOSA32 and MIMOSA34 pixel sensor prototypes have been studied using X-rays ( 55 Fe) and test beams at CERN and DESY before and after Non Ionizing Energy Loss (NIEL) and TID irradiation. In this paper the results of these R&D activities will be presented and discussed.
The transverse momentum (pT) spectrum and nuclear modification factor (RAA) of reconstructed jets in 0–10% and 10–30% central Pb–Pb collisions at sNN=2.76 TeV were measured. Jets were reconstructed ...using the anti-kT jet algorithm with a resolution parameter of R=0.2 from charged and neutral particles, utilizing the ALICE tracking detectors and Electromagnetic Calorimeter (EMCal). The jet pT spectra are reported in the pseudorapidity interval of |ηjet|<0.5 for 40<pT,jet<120 GeV/c in 0–10% and for 30<pT,jet<100 GeV/c in 10–30% collisions. Reconstructed jets were required to contain a leading charged particle with pT>5 GeV/c to suppress jets constructed from the combinatorial background in Pb–Pb collisions. The leading charged particle requirement applied to jet spectra both in pp and Pb–Pb collisions had a negligible effect on the RAA. The nuclear modification factor RAA was found to be 0.28±0.04 in 0–10% and 0.35±0.04 in 10–30% collisions, independent of pT,jet within the uncertainties of the measurement. The observed suppression is in fair agreement with expectations from two model calculations with different approaches to jet quenching.
The average transverse momentum 〈pT〉 versus the charged-particle multiplicity Nch was measured in p–Pb collisions at a collision energy per nucleon–nucleon pair sNN=5.02 TeV and in pp collisions at ...collision energies of s=0.9,2.76, and 7 TeV in the kinematic range 0.15<pT<10.0 GeV/c and |η|<0.3 with the ALICE apparatus at the LHC. These data are compared to results in Pb–Pb collisions at sNN=2.76 TeV at similar charged-particle multiplicities. In pp and p–Pb collisions, a strong increase of 〈pT〉 with Nch is observed, which is much stronger than that measured in Pb–Pb collisions. For pp collisions, this could be attributed, within a model of hadronizing strings, to multiple-parton interactions and to a final-state color reconnection mechanism. The data in p–Pb and Pb–Pb collisions cannot be described by an incoherent superposition of nucleon–nucleon collisions and pose a challenge to most of the event generators.
We report on the measurement of the inclusive ϒ(1S) production in Pb–Pb collisions at sNN=2.76 TeV carried out at forward rapidity (2.5<y<4) and down to zero transverse momentum using its μ+μ− decay ...channel with the ALICE detector at the Large Hadron Collider. A strong suppression of the inclusive ϒ(1S) yield is observed with respect to pp collisions scaled by the number of independent nucleon–nucleon collisions. The nuclear modification factor, for events in the 0–90% centrality range, amounts to 0.30±0.05(stat)±0.04(syst). The observed ϒ(1S) suppression tends to increase with the centrality of the collision and seems more pronounced than in corresponding mid-rapidity measurements. Our results are compared with model calculations, which are found to underestimate the measured suppression and fail to reproduce its rapidity dependence.
We report on the production of inclusive ϒ(1S) and ϒ(2S) in p–Pb collisions at sNN=5.02 TeV at the LHC. The measurement is performed with the ALICE detector at backward (−4.46<ycms<−2.96) and forward ...(2.03<ycms<3.53) rapidity down to zero transverse momentum. The production cross sections of the ϒ(1S) and ϒ(2S) are presented, as well as the nuclear modification factor and the ratio of the forward to backward yields of ϒ(1S). A suppression of the inclusive ϒ(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.
Charged jet production cross sections in p–Pb collisions at sNN=5.02 TeV measured with the ALICE detector at the LHC are presented. Using the anti-kT 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, RpPb, of charged jets in p–Pb collisions, a pp reference was constructed by scaling previously measured charged jet spectra at s=7 TeV. In the transverse momentum range 20≤pT,chjet≤120 GeV/c, RpPb 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 s=7 TeV and to the expectations from PYTHIA pp simulations and NLO pQCD calculations at sNN=5.02 TeV.
Two-particle angular correlations between trigger particles in the forward pseudorapidity range (2.5<|η|<4.0) and associated particles in the central range (|η|<1.0) are measured with the ALICE ...detector in p–Pb collisions at a nucleon–nucleon centre-of-mass energy of 5.02 TeV. The trigger particles are reconstructed using the muon spectrometer, and the associated particles by the central barrel tracking detectors. In high-multiplicity events, the double-ridge structure, previously discovered in two-particle angular correlations at midrapidity, is found to persist to the pseudorapidity ranges studied in this Letter. The second-order Fourier coefficients for muons in high-multiplicity events are extracted after jet-like correlations from low-multiplicity events have been subtracted. The coefficients are found to have a similar transverse momentum (pT) dependence in p-going (p–Pb) and Pb-going (Pb–p) configurations, with the Pb-going coefficients larger by about 16±6%, rather independent of pT within the uncertainties of the measurement. The data are compared with calculations using the AMPT model, which predicts a different pT and η dependence than observed in the data. The results are sensitive to the parent particle v2 and composition of reconstructed muon tracks, where the contribution from heavy flavour decays is expected to dominate at pT>2 GeV/c.
The ALICE Collaboration at the LHC reports measurement of the inclusive production cross section of electrons from semi-leptonic decays of beauty hadrons with rapidity |y|<0.8 and transverse momentum ...1<pT<10 GeV/c, in pp collisions at s=2.76 TeV. Electrons not originating from semi-electronic decay of beauty hadrons are suppressed using the impact parameter of the corresponding tracks. The production cross section of beauty decay electrons is compared to the result obtained with an alternative method which uses the distribution of the azimuthal angle between heavy-flavour decay electrons and charged hadrons. Perturbative QCD predictions agree with the measured cross section within the experimental and theoretical uncertainties. The integrated visible cross section, σb→e=3.47±0.40(stat)−1.33+1.12(sys)±0.07(norm) μb, was extrapolated to full phase space using Fixed Order plus Next-to-Leading Log (FONLL) calculations to obtain the total bb¯ production cross section, σbb¯=130±15.1(stat)−49.8+42.1(sys)−3.1+3.4(extr)±2.5(norm)±4.4(BR) μb.
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