The international collaboration ALICE (“A Large Ion Collider Experiment”), of which the eponymous research group of the IP2I in Lyon is a member, aims to study nuclear matter in a state of extremely high temperature, where the deconfinement of hadrons (including protons and neutrons) into plasma of quarks and gluons takes place.
Matter is made up of atoms, themselves made up of electrons surrounding a nucleus of protons and neutrons, the latter being formed of quarks, linked by gluons. No quark or gluon has ever been observed in isolation: they appear to be permanently bonded together and confined in composite particles. At temperatures 100,000 times higher than those at the centre of the Sun, they deconform to form a plasma, which would have existed a few microseconds after the Big Bang. This plasma is predicted by the fundamental theory of strong interaction, Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD), and its study allows us to understand the ultimate organization of matter subject to strong interaction and the very first moments of the universe.
The LHC collides lead ions to recreate conditions similar to those immediately after the Big Bang and form this quark and gluon plasma. For this infinitely small study, a huge detector has been built at the LHC. It is capable of measuring the particles emitted by the plasma as it expands and cools.
Our group has been involved in this construction and in obtaining major results in this field of physics.
The activities of the ALICE group of the IP2I of Lyon are twofold:
- the analysis of data collected in proton-proton, proton-nucleus and nucleus-nucleus collisions at the CERN LHC
- participation in the construction and operation of the forward vertex trajectograph, the Muon Forward Tracker
Analysis of data collected in proton-proton, proton-nucleus and nucleus-nucleus collisions at the CERN LHC
The physics analyses of the ALICE experiment carried out in the Lyon groups cover a wide range of subjects, from the light quark sector u, d, s with the study of the forward production of low mass vector mesons 
and 
in the dimuonic decay channel, to the heavy quarks sector c and b, with the study of the production of the quarkonium states of the 
and 
families. This analytical work has already led to a number of remarkable results, notably through the study of collective phenomena characterizing the evolution of the and mesons, namely the appearance of kinematic correlations between the meson and light hadrons in high multiplicity proton-Pb collisions, and the observation of elliptical flow of the 
meson compatible with zero in Pb-Pb collisions (behavior different from all the other particles studied).
Participation in the construction and operation of the forward vertex trajectograph, the Muon Forward Tracker
The group is also responsible for the construction and operation of the vertex forward trajectograph, the Muon Forward Tracker (MFT), one of the first applications in high energy physics of CMOS silicon pixel sensor technology. The MFT, which will be integrated into the ALICE detector starting with Run3 of the LHC (2021), is designed to enable precise measurement of the details of the vertex region for forward-produced particles, especially muons, whose different topologies and production processes can be studied.
NON-PERMANENTS:
- DOCTORANTS / DOCTORAL STUDENTS:
- D. Jouan, M. Abreu, B. Alessandro, C. Alexa, R. Arnaldi, et al.. NA50 results on Pb-Pb interactions at 158 GeV per nucleon. CRIS 2000 Catania Relativistic Ions Studies 3, May 2000, Acicastello, Italy. pp.157c-164c. ⟨in2p3-00008203⟩
- S. Ramos, M-C. Abreu, B. Alessandro, C. Alexa, R. Arnaldi, et al.. Searching for QGP: the J/
probe in the NA50/CERN experiment. Intersections between Particle and Nuclear Physics 7, May 2000, Quebec, Canada. pp.341-345. ⟨in2p3-00013554⟩ - J. Delorme, M. Ericson, P.A.M. Guichon, A.W. Thomas. Mass reduction as signal of chiral symmetry restoration. International Conference on Quark Nuclear Physics 2000 - QNP 2000, Feb 2000, Adelaide, Australia. pp.250c-253c. ⟨in2p3-00008426⟩
- S. Beole, M C. Abreu, B. Alessandro, C. Alexa, R. Arnaldi, et al.. Latest results from NA50 on J/ suppression and multiplicity distributions in Pb-Pb collisions at 158GeV/c. International Winter Meeting on Nuclear Physics 38, Jan 2000, Bormio, Italy. pp.231-240c. ⟨in2p3-00005414⟩
- L. Villatte, M.C. Abreu, B. Alessandro, C. Alexa, R. Arnaldi, et al.. production in Pb-Pb collisions at 158 GeV/c per nucleon in the NA50 experiment. International Winter Meeting on Nuclear Physics 38, Jan 2000, Bormio, Italy. pp.231-240. ⟨in2p3-00005349⟩
- M. Ericson, J-L. Ballot, M.R. Robilotta. Changes in the quark condensate of deuteron induced by the nucleon nucleon interaction. 2000. ⟨in2p3-00003787⟩
- M. Chartoire, B. Cheynis, L. Ducroux, D. Essertaize, E. Gangler, et al.. Dimuon forward spectrometer. 2000. ⟨in2p3-00011658⟩
- M. Acciarri, P. Achard, O. Adriani, M. Aguilar-Benitez, J. Alcaraz, et al.. Measurements of Cross Sections and Forward-Backward Asymmetries at the Z Resonance and Determination of Electroweak Parameters. European Physical Journal C: Particles and Fields, 2000, 16, pp.1-40. ⟨10.1007/s100520050001⟩. ⟨in2p3-00009699⟩
- M. Acciarri, P. Achard, O. Adriani, M. Aguilar-Benitez, J. Alcaraz, et al.. Search for charginos with a small mass difference to the lightest supersymmetric particle at
= 189 GeV. Physics Letters B, 2000, 482, pp.31-42. ⟨in2p3-00009700⟩ - J-L. Ballot, M. Ericson, M-R. Robilotta. Quark condensate in the deuteron. Physical Review C, 2000, 61, pp.055202-1-055202-8. ⟨10.1103/PhysRevC.61.055202⟩. ⟨in2p3-00022601⟩
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