The Pixel Chamber project purpose is the production of the first solid state active target capable of performing continuous, high-resolution (O(μm)) 3D tracking. The aim is to create a bubble ...chamber-like high-granularity stack of hundreds of very thin monolithic active pixel sensors (MAPS) glued together. In this paper, the R&D to develop the first prototypes with ALPIDE sensors, designed for the ALICE experiment at the CERN LHC, will be presented. Tracking and vertexing algorithms were developed to reconstruct tracks and vertices inside Pixel Chamber. They were tested on Monte Carlo simulations which show that it is possible to obtain a high efficiency for the reconstruction of hadronic tracks, and for the primary and secondary vertices inside the detector. The tracking algorithm has been tested on test beam data to reconstruct long tracks produced in a single ALPIDE sensor parallel to a beam. Results show that it is possible to obtain very good performances in long track reconstruction on a single ALPIDE. Among the possible applications, Pixel Chamber used as an active target, has the potential to allow precision measurements of charm and beauty production. Even more interesting are possible medical and astrophysical applications. The usage of the Pixel Chamber as scatterer detector in Compton Cameras would reduce by orders of magnitude the numbers of gammas required for performing a precise source imaging, both for in vivo monitoring during hadron therapy and for astrophysics measurements.
The elliptic, v2, triangular, v3, and quadrangular, v4, azimuthal anisotropic flow coefficients are measured for unidentified charged particles, pions, and (anti-)protons in Pb–Pb collisions at ...sNN=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 |η|<0.8 at different collision centralities and as a function of transverse momentum, pT, out to pT=20 GeV/c. The observed non-zero elliptic and triangular flow depends only weakly on transverse momentum for pT>8 GeV/c. The small pT 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 pT=8 GeV/c. The magnitude of the (anti-)proton elliptic and triangular flow is larger than that of pions out to at least pT=8 GeV/c indicating that the particle type dependence persists out to high pT.
Midrapidity production of π±, K±, and (¯p)p measured by the ALICE experiment at the CERN Large Hadron Collider, in Pb-Pb and inelastic pp collisions at √sNN=5.02 TeV, is presented. The invariant ...yields are measured over a wide transverse momentum (pT) range from hundreds of MeV/c up to 20 GeV/c. The results in Pb-Pb collisions are presented as a function of the collision centrality, in the range 0–90%. The comparison of the pT-integrated particle ratios, i.e., proton-to-pion (p/π) and kaon-to-pion (K/π) ratios, with similar measurements in Pb-Pb collisions at √sNN=2.76 TeV show no significant energy dependence. Blast-wave fits of the pT spectra indicate that in the most central collisions radial flow is slightly larger at 5.02 TeV with respect to 2.76 TeV. Particle ratios (p/π, K/π) as a function of pT show pronounced maxima at pT≈3GeV/c in central Pb-Pb collisions. At high pT, particle ratios at 5.02 TeV are similar to those measured in pp collisions at the same energy and in Pb-Pb collisions at √sNN=2.76 TeV. Using the pp reference spectra measured at the same collision energy of 5.02 TeV, the nuclear modification factors for the different particle species are derived. Within uncertainties, the nuclear modification factor is particle species independent for high pT and compatible with measurements at √sNN=2.76 TeV. The results are compared to state-of-the-art model calculations, which are found to describe the observed trends satisfactorily.
The pseudorapidity density of charged particles, dNch / d η , at midrapidity in Pb-Pb collisions has been measured at a center-of-mass energy per nucleon pair of √ s N N = 5.02 TeV . For the 5% ...most central collisions, we measure a value of 1943 ± 54 . The rise in dNch / d η as a function of √ s N N is steeper than that observed in proton-proton collisions and follows the trend established by measurements at lower energy. The increase of dNch / d η as a function of the average number of participant nucleons, ⟨ N part ⟩ , calculated in a Glauber model, is compared with the previous measurement at √ s N N = 2.76 TeV . A constant factor of about 1.2 describes the increase in dNch / d η from √ s N N = 2.76 to 5.02 TeV for all centrality classes, within the measured range of 0%–80% centrality. The results are also compared to models based on different mechanisms for particle production in nuclear collisions.
Comprehensive results on the production of unidentified charged particles, π±, K±, K$_S^0$, K*(892)0, $p, \bar{p}, ϕ$(1020), Λ, Λ, Ξ-, Ξ+, Ω-, and $\bar{Ω}^+$ hadrons in proton-proton ...(pp) collisions at $ \sqrt{s}$=7 TeV at midrapidity (|y|<0.5) as a function of charged-particle multiplicity density are presented. In order to avoid autocorrelation biases, the actual transverse momentum (pT) spectra of the particles under study and the event activity are measured in different rapidity windows. In the highest multiplicity class, the charged-particle density reaches about 3.5 times the value measured in inelastic collisions. While the yield of protons normalized to pions remains approximately constant as a function of multiplicity, the corresponding ratios of strange hadrons to pions show a significant enhancement that increases with increasing strangeness content. Furthermore, all identified particle-to-pion ratios are shown to depend solely on charged-particle multiplicity density, regardless of system type and collision energy. The evolution of the spectral shapes with multiplicity and hadron mass shows patterns that are similar to those observed in p-Pb and Pb-Pb collisions at Large Hadron Collider energies. The obtained pT distributions and yields are compared to expectations from QCD-based pp event generators as well as to predictions from thermal and hydrodynamic models. These comparisons indicate that traces of a collective, equilibrated system are already present in high-multiplicity pp collisions.
The production of (anti-)deuteron and (anti-)$^{3}$He nuclei in Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}$ = 2.76 TeV has been studied using the ALICE detector at the LHC. The spectra exhibit a ...significant hardening with increasing centrality. Combined blast-wave fits of several particles support the interpretation that this behavior is caused by an increase of radial flow. The integrated particle yields are discussed in the context of coalescence and thermal-statistical model expectations. The particle ratios, $^3$He/d and $^3$He/p, in Pb-Pb collisions are found to be in agreement with a common chemical freeze-out temperature of $T_{\rm chem} \approx 156$ MeV. These ratios do not vary with centrality which is in agreement with the thermal-statistical model. In a coalescence approach, it excludes models in which nucleus production is proportional to the particle multiplicity and favors those in which it is proportional to the particle density instead. In addition, the observation of 31 anti-tritons in Pb-Pb collisions is reported. For comparison, the deuteron spectrum in pp collisions at $\sqrt{s} = 7$ TeV is also presented. While the p/$\pi$ ratio is similar in pp and Pb-Pb collisions, the d/p ratio in pp collisions is found to be lower by a factor of 2.2 than in Pb-Pb collisions.
This article reports measurements of the pT-differential inclusive jet cross section in pp collisions at s=5.02TeV and the pT-differential inclusive jet yield in Pb-Pb 0-10% central collisions at ...sNN=5.02TeV. Jets were reconstructed at midrapidity with the ALICE tracking detectors and electromagnetic calorimeter using the anti-kT algorithm. For pp collisions, we report jet cross sections for jet resolution parameters R=0.1-0.6 over the range 20<pT,jet<140 GeV/c, as well as the jet cross-section ratios of different R and comparisons to two next-to-leading-order (NLO)-based theoretical predictions. For Pb-Pb collisions, we report the R=0.2 and R=0.4 jet spectra for 40<pT,jet<140 GeV/c and 60<pT,jet<140 GeV/c, respectively. The scaled ratio of jet yields observed in Pb-Pb to pp collisions, RAA, is constructed, and exhibits strong jet quenching and a clear pT dependence for R=0.2. No significant R dependence of the jet RAA is observed within the uncertainties of the measurement. These results are compared to several theoretical predictions.
The prompt production of the charm baryon Λ+c and the Λ+c/D0 production ratios were measured at midrapidity with the ALICE detector in pp and p-Pb collisions at √sNN=5.02 TeV. These new measurements ...show a clear decrease of the Λ+c/D0 ratio with increasing transverse momentum (pT) in both collision systems in the range 2<pT<12 GeV/c, exhibiting similarities with the light-flavor baryon-to-meson ratios p/π and Λ/K0S. At low pT, predictions that include additional color-reconnection mechanisms beyond the leading-color approximation, assume the existence of additional higher-mass charm-baryon states, or include hadronization via coalescence can describe the data, while predictions driven by charm-quark fragmentation processes measured in e+e− and e−p collisions significantly underestimate the data. The results presented in this Letter provide significant evidence that the established assumption of universality (colliding-system independence) of parton-to-hadron fragmentation is not sufficient to describe charm-baryon production in hadronic collisions at LHC energies.
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