Professor Claire Gwenlan

Abstract:

This paper describes the measurements of flow harmonics v2-v6 in 3μb-1 of Xe+Xe collisions at sNN=5.44 TeV performed using the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). Measurements of the centrality, multiplicity, and pT dependence of the vn obtained using two-particle correlations and the scalar product technique are presented. The measurements are also performed using a template-fit procedure, which was developed to remove nonflow correlations in small collision systems. This nonflow removal is shown to have a significant influence on the measured vn at high pT, especially in peripheral events. Comparisons of the measured vn with measurements in Pb+Pb collisions and p+Pb collisions at sNN=5.02 TeV are also presented. The vn values in Xe+Xe collisions are observed to be larger than those in Pb+Pb collisions for n=2, 3, and 4 in the most central events. However, with decreasing centrality or increasing harmonic order n, the vn values in Xe+Xe collisions become smaller than those in Pb+Pb collisions. The vn in Xe+Xe and Pb+Pb collisions are also compared as a function of the mean number of participating nucleons, (Npart), and the measured charged-particle multiplicity in the detector. The v3 values in Xe+Xe and Pb+Pb collisions are observed to be similar at the same (Npart) or multiplicity, but the other harmonics are significantly different. The ratios of the measured vn in Xe+Xe and Pb+Pb collisions, as a function of centrality, are also compared to theoretical calculations.

Abstract:

A dedicated sample of Large Hadron Collider proton-proton collision data at centre-of-mass energy s√ = 8 TeV is used to study inclusive single diffractive dissociation, pp → X p. The intact final-state proton is reconstructed in the ATLAS ALFA forward spectrometer, while charged particles from the dissociated system X are measured in the central detector components. The fiducial range of the measurement is −4.0 < log10ξ < −1.6 and 0.016 < |t| < 0.43 GeV2, where ξ is the proton fractional energy loss and t is the squared four-momentum transfer. The total cross section integrated across the fiducial range is 1.59 ± 0.13 mb. Cross sections are also measured differentially as functions of ξ, t, and ∆η, a variable that characterises the rapidity gap separating the proton and the system X . The data are consistent with an exponential t dependence, dσ/dt ∝ eBt with slope parameter B = 7.65 ± 0.34 GeV−2. Interpreted in the framework of triple Regge phenomenology, the ξ dependence leads to a pomeron intercept of α(0) = 1.07 ± 0.09.

Abstract:

The production yield of Z bosons is measured in the electron and muon decay channels in Pb+Pb collisions at √sNN = 5.02 TeV with the ATLAS detector. Data from the 2015 LHC run corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 0.49 nb−1 are used for the analysis. The Z boson yield, normalised by the total number of minimum-bias events and the mean nuclear thickness function, is measured as a function of dilepton rapidity and event centrality. The measurements in Pb+Pb collisions are compared with similar measurements made in proton–proton collisions at the same centre-of-mass energy. The nuclear modification factor is found to be consistent with unity for all centrality intervals. The results are compared with theoretical predictions obtained at next-to-leading order using nucleon and nuclear parton distribution functions. The normalised Z boson yields in Pb+Pb collisions lie 1–3σ above the predictions. The nuclear modification factor measured as a function of rapidity agrees with unity and is consistent with a next-to-leading-order QCD calculation including the isospin effect

Abstract:

The azimuthal anisotropy of charged particles produced in sNN=8.16 TeV p+Pb collisions is measured with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. The data correspond to an integrated luminosity of 165 nb - 1 that was collected in 2016. Azimuthal anisotropy coefficients, elliptic v2 and triangular v3, extracted using two-particle correlations with a non-flow template fit procedure, are presented as a function of particle transverse momentum (pT) between 0.5 and 50 GeV. The v2 results are also reported as a function of centrality in three different particle pT intervals. The results are reported from minimum-bias events and jet-triggered events, where two jet pT thresholds are used. The anisotropies for particles with pT less than about 2 GeV are consistent with hydrodynamic flow expectations, while the significant non-zero anisotropies for pT in the range 9–50 GeV are not explained within current theoretical frameworks. In the pT range 2–9 GeV, the anisotropies are larger in minimum-bias than in jet-triggered events. Possible origins of these effects, such as the changing admixture of particles from hard scattering and the underlying event, are discussed.

Abstract:

Results are presented from the measurement by ATLAS of long-range (| Δ η| > 2) dihadron angular correlations in s=8 and 13 TeV pp collisions containing a Z boson. The analysis is performed using 19.4 fb - 1 of s=8 TeV data recorded during Run 1 of the LHC and 36.1 fb - 1 of s=13 TeV data recorded during Run 2. Two-particle correlation functions are measured as a function of relative azimuthal angle over the relative pseudorapidity range 2 < | Δ η| < 5 for different intervals of charged-particle multiplicity and transverse momentum. The measurements are corrected for the presence of background charged particles generated by collisions that occur during one passage of two colliding proton bunches in the LHC. Contributions to the two-particle correlation functions from hard processes are removed using a template-fitting procedure. Sinusoidal modulation in the correlation functions is observed and quantified by the second Fourier coefficient of the correlation function, v2 , 2, which in turn is used to obtain the single-particle anisotropy coefficient v2. The v2 values in the Z-tagged events, integrated over 0.5 < pT< 5 GeV, are found to be independent of multiplicity and s, and consistent within uncertainties with previous measurements in inclusive pp collisions. As a function of charged-particle pT, the Z-tagged and inclusive v2 values are consistent within uncertainties for pT< 3 GeV.