Performance of the ALICE experiment at the CERN LHC

Abstract

ALICE is the heavy-ion experiment at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. The experiment continuously took data during the first physics campaign of the machine from fall 2009 until early 2013, using proton and lead-ion beams. In this paper we describe the running environment and the data handling procedures, and discuss the performance of the ALICE detectors and analysis methods for various physics observables.

Critical behaviors near the (tri-)critical end point of QCD within the NJL model

“…This phase transition is expected to be a e-mail: zonghs@nju.edu.cn produced in on-going heavy-ion collision experiments, such as the BNL Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collider (RHIC) and the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC) [5][6][7][8]. In addition, high density QCD matter at low temperature is anticipated in the compact stars physics [9][10][11].…”

Coherent ρ 0 photoproduction in ultra-peripheral Pb-Pb collisions at s N N = 2.76 $$ \sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}=2.76 $$ TeV

“…The distance of closest approach between the track and the primary vertex has to be less than 2 cm along the beam direction and less than 0.0182 + 0.035/p 1.01 T cm (p T in GeV/c) in the plane perpendicular to the beam direction. These track selection cuts are based on studies of the detector performance [18].Three other track selections are used in order to estimate systematic errors. These differ from the default track selection described above in the following ways: (a) accepting tracks reconstructed only in the ITS in addition to combined ITS-TPC tracks satisfying the default track selection; (b) using only TPC information and accepting tracks having at least 50 space points in the TPC; (c) using the default track cuts with stronger requirements on TPC variables.…”

(Anti-)deuteron production and anisotropic flow measured with ALICE at the LHC

“…For the analyses presented here, a sample of about 35 million Pb-Pb collisions at √ s NN = 2.76 TeV collected by ALICE [7] in 2011 were used. The events were classified into 6 different centrality intervals, which were determined using the forward V0 [8] scintillator arrays.…”

“…Specifically, for momenta up to 1 GeV/c the energy loss in the TPC gives a clean sample of (anti-)deuterons by requiring a maximum deviation of the specific energy loss of 3σ with respect to the expected signal. Above 1 GeV/c a Time of Fight (TOF) [7] hit is required. The signal in the TOF detector is fitted with a function which is the sum of a Gaussian with an exponential tail, while the background is fitted with an exponential.…”