Angular correlations are a sensitive probe of the transport properties of the system produced in nucleus-nucleus collisions. Similar studies performed in p-Pb collisions have recently revealed intriguing features as well. In this article, we review t
he latest results on charged and identified particle correlations obtained with the ALICE detector at the LHC in both Pb-Pb and p-Pb events.
Fluctuations of thermodynamic quantities are fundamental for the study of the QGP phase transition. Among several observables calculated on an event-by-event basis, the different measures of the charge and mean transverse momentum fluctuations are of
particular interest since they are considered to be indicators of the existence and of the order of this transition as well as of the thermalization in heavy--ion collisions. In this article, we review the first results from the event-by-event physics program of the ALICE experiment at the LHC in Pb--Pb collisions at $sqrt{s_{NN}} = 2.76$ TeV. The experimental results will be compared to previously published data and available model predictions.
Separation of charges along the extreme magnetic field created in non-central relativistic heavy--ion collisions is predicted to be a signature of local parity violation in strong interactions. We report on results for charge dependent two particle a
zimuthal correlations with respect to the reaction plane for Pb--Pb collisions at $sqrt{s_{NN}} = 2.76$ TeV recorded in 2010 with ALICE at the LHC. The results are compared with measurements at RHIC energies and against currently available model predictions for LHC. Systematic studies of possible background effects including comparison with conventional (parity-even) correlations simulated with Monte Carlo event generators of heavy--ion collisions are also presented.
The latest results from the commissioning of the SSD with cosmics are presented in this paper. The hardware status of the detector, the front-end electronics, cooling, data acquisition and issues related to the on-line monitoring are shown. In additi
on, the procedures implemented and followed to address the alignment with the rest of the ITS sub-detectors along with both on-line and off-line calibration strategies are described. Finally, results from simulations as well as from the reconstruction of cosmic data demonstrating the performance of the detector are presented, proving that the SSD is ready for the forthcoming proton-proton data taking.
Fluctuations of thermodynamic quantities are fundamental for the study of the QGP phase transition. The ALICE experiment is well suited for precise event-by-event measurements of various quantities. In this article, we review the capabilities of ALIC
E to study the fluctuations of several key observables such as the net charge, the temperature, and the particle ratios. Among the observables related to correlations, we review the balance functions and the long range correlations.
Results from electric charge correlations studied with the Balance Function method in A+A collisions from 20emph{A} to 158emph{A} GeV are presented in two different rapidity intervals: In the mid-rapidity region we observe a decrease of the width of
the Balance Function distribution with increasing centrality of the collision, whereas this effect vanishes in the forward rapidity region. Results from the energy dependence study in central Pb+Pb collisions show that the narrowing of the Balance Function expressed by the normalised width parameter textit{W} increases with energy towards the highest SPS and RHIC energies. Finally we compare our experimental data points with predictions of several models. The hadronic string models UrQMD and HIJING do not reproduce the observed narrowing of the Balance Function. However, AMPT which contains a quark-parton transport phase before hadronization can reproduce the narrowing of the BFs width with centrality. This confirms the proposed sensitivity of the Balance Function analysis to the time of hadronization.
