Centrality determination of Pb-Pb collisions at root s(NN)=2.76 TeV with ALICE


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Abelev B., Adam J., Adamova D., Adare A. M., Aggarwal M. M., Rinella G. A., ...More

PHYSICAL REVIEW C, vol.88, no.4, 2013 (SCI-Expanded) identifier identifier identifier

  • Publication Type: Article / Article
  • Volume: 88 Issue: 4
  • Publication Date: 2013
  • Doi Number: 10.1103/physrevc.88.044909
  • Journal Name: PHYSICAL REVIEW C
  • Journal Indexes: Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED), Scopus
  • Bursa Uludag University Affiliated: No

Abstract

This publication describes the methods used to measure the centrality of inelastic Pb-Pb collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 2.76 TeV per colliding nucleon pair with ALICE. The centrality is a key parameter in the study of the properties of QCD matter at extreme temperature and energy density, because it is directly related to the initial overlap region of the colliding nuclei. Geometrical properties of the collision, such as the number of participating nucleons and the number of binary nucleon-nucleon collisions, are deduced from a Glauber model with a sharp impact parameter selection and shown to be consistent with those extracted from the data. The centrality determination provides a tool to compare ALICE measurements with those of other experiments and with theoretical calculations.