http://fig.if.usp.br/~mleite/PDF/0410022.pdf

The PHOBOS Perspective on Discoveries at RHIC

ALICE is a general-purpose heavy-ion experiment designed to study the physics of strongly interacting matter and the quark–gluon plasma in nucleus–nucleus collisions at the LHC. It currently involves more than 900 physicists and senior engineers, from both the nuclear and high-energy physics sectors, from over 90 institutions in about 30 countries.The ALICE detector is designed to cope with the highest particle multiplicities above those anticipated for Pb–Pb collisions (dNch/dy up to 8000) and it will be operational at the start-up of the LHC. In addition to heavy systems, the ALICE Collaboration will study collisions of lower-mass ions, which are a means of varying the energy density, and protons (both pp and pA), which primarily provide reference data for the nucleus–nucleus collisions. In addition, the pp data will allow for a number of genuine pp physics studies.The detailed design of the different detector systems has been laid down in a number of Technical Design Reports issued between mid-1998 and the end of 2004. The experiment is currently under construction and will be ready for data taking with both proton and heavy-ion beams at the start-up of the LHC.Since the comprehensive information on detector and physics performance was last published in the ALICE Technical Proposal in 1996, the detector, as well as simulation, reconstruction and analysis software have undergone significant development. The Physics Performance Report (PPR) provides an updated and comprehensive summary of the performance of the various ALICE subsystems, including updates to the Technical Design Reports, as appropriate.The PPR is divided into two volumes. Volume I, published in 2004 (CERN/LHCC 2003-049, ALICE Collaboration 2004 J. Phys. G: Nucl. Part. Phys. 30 1517–1763), contains in four chapters a short theoretical overview and an extensive reference list concerning the physics topics of interest to ALICE, the experimental conditions at the LHC, a short summary and update of the subsystem designs, and a description of the offline framework and Monte Carlo event generators.The present volume, Volume II, contains the majority of the information relevant to the physics performance in proton–proton, proton–nucleus, and nucleus–nucleus collisions. Following an introductory overview, Chapter 5 describes the combined detector performance and the event reconstruction procedures, based on detailed simulations of the individual subsystems. Chapter 6 describes the analysis and physics reach for a representative sample of physics observables, from global event characteristics to hard processes.

ALICE: Physics Performance Report, Volume II

Strings, pomerons and the VENUS model of hadronic interactions at ultrarelativistic energies

Charged-particle production was studied in proton-proton collisions collected at the LHC with the ALICE detector at centre-of-mass energies 0.9 TeV and 2.36 TeV in the pseudorapidity range vertical bar eta vertical bar < 1.4. In the central region (vertical bar eta vertical bar < 0.5), at 0.9 TeV, we measure charged-particle pseudo-rapidity density dN(ch)/d eta = 3.02 +/- 0.01(stat.)(-0.05)(+0.08)(syst.) for inelastic interactions, and dN(ch)/d eta = 3.58 +/- 0.01 (stat.)(-0.12)(+0.12)(syst.) for non-single-diffractive interactions. At 2.36 TeV, we find dN(ch)/d eta = 3.77 +/- 0.01(stat.)(-0.12)(+0.25)(syst.) for inelastic, and dN(ch)/d eta = 4.43 +/- 0.01(stat.)(-0.12)(+0.17)(syst.) for non-single-diffractive collisions. The relative increase in charged-particle multiplicity from the lower to higher energy is 24.7% +/- 0.5%(stat.)(-2.8)(+5.7)%(syst.) for inelastic and 23.7% +/- 0.5%(stat.)(-1.1)(+4.6)%(syst.) for non-single-diffractive interactions. This increase is consistent with that reported by the CMS collaboration for non-single-diffractive events and larger than that found by a number of commonly used models. The multiplicity distribution was measured in different pseudorapidity intervals and studied in terms of KNO variables at both energies. The results are compared to proton-antiproton data and to model predictions.

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Charged-particle multiplicity measurement in proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s}=7$ TeV with ALICE at LHC

New data are presented on charged particle pseudorapidity distributions for inelastic events produced at c.m. energies$\sqrt s $=200 and 900 GeV. The data were obtained at the CERN antiproton-proton Collider operated in a new pulsed mode. The rise of the central density ρ(0) at energies up to$\sqrt s $=900 GeV has been studied. A new form of central region scaling is found involving the densityρn(0) for charged multiplicityn, namely that the scaled central densityρn(0)/ρ(0) expressed as a function ofz=n/〈n〉 is independent ofs. Scaling in the fragmentation region holds to 10–20%, and the small amount of scalebreaking observed here could be accommodated within the framework suggested by Wdowcyk and Wolfendale to account for both accelerator and cosmic ray data.

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Scaling of Pseudorapidity Distributions at c.m. Energies Up to 0.9-TeV

Charged particle multiplicity distributions in pp collisions at ISR energies

Angular correlations in proton-proton collisions producing a high transverse momentum π0

We consider asymptotically hyperbolic manifolds whose metrics have Sobolev-class regularity, and introduce several technical tools for studying PDEs on such manifolds. Our results employ two novel families of function spaces suitable for metrics potentially having a large amount of interior differentiability, but whose Sobolev regularity implies only a H\"older continuous conformal structure at infinity. We establish Fredholm theorems for elliptic operators arising from metrics in these families. To demonstrate the utility of our methods, we solve the Yamabe problem in this category. As a special case, we show that the asymptotically hyperbolic Yamabe problem is solvable so long as the metric admits a $W^{1,p}$ conformal compactification, with $p$ greater than the dimension of the manifold.

P. Allen

Papers

Charged particle multiplicity distributions in pp collisions at ISR energies

Angular correlations in proton-proton collisions producing a high transverse momentum π0

Sobolev-class asymptotically hyperbolic manifolds and the Yamabe problem