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:
- C. Baglin, A. Baldisseri, A. Bussiere, J.P. Guillaud, R. Kossakowski, et al.. Initial state interactions and j/
production in nucleus-nucleus collisions. Physics Letters B, 1991, 268, pp.453-456. ⟨10.1016/0370-2693(91)91607-W⟩. ⟨in2p3-00002544⟩
- B. Adeva, O. Adriani, M. Aguilar-Benitez, H. Akbari, J. Alcaraz, et al.. Measurement of the lifetime of B-hadrons and a determination of
. Physics Letters B, 1991, 270, pp.111-122. ⟨10.1016/0370-2693(91)91547-9⟩. ⟨in2p3-00003658⟩
- B. Adeva, O. Adriani, M. Aguilar-Benitez, H. Akbari, J. Alcaraz, et al.. Search for lepton flavour violation in Z
decays. Physics Letters B, 1991, 271, pp.453-460. ⟨10.1016/j.nuclphysbps.2017.03.067⟩. ⟨in2p3-00023121⟩
- C. Baglin, A. Baldisseri, A. Bussiere, J.P. Guillaud, R. Kossakowski, et al.. J/
and muon-pair cross sections in proton-nucleus an nucleus-nucleus collisions at 200 GeV per nucleon. Physics Letters B, 1991, 270, pp.105-110. ⟨10.1016/0370-2693(91)91546-8⟩. ⟨in2p3-00003653⟩
- A. Brockstedt, I. Bergquist, L. Carlen, L.P. Ekstroem, B. Jakobsson, et al.. The (
He.t) reaction at intermediate energies - spin isospin multipole transitions. Nuclear Physics A, 1991, 530, pp.571-604. ⟨10.1016/0375-9474(91)90770-7⟩. ⟨in2p3-00003660⟩
- X. Artru, M. Mekhfi. What can we learn from unpolarized and polarized electroproduction of fast baryons?. European Workshop on Hadronic Physics with Electrons beyond 10 GeV, Oct 1990, Dourdan, France. pp.351c-358c. ⟨in2p3-00004000⟩
- M.C. Abreu, M. Alimi, C. Baglin, A. Baldisseri, A. Baldit, et al.. J/
production in heavy ions reactions. International Symposium on Multiparticle Dynamics 1990 20, Sep 1990, Dortmund, Germany. pp.612-616. ⟨in2p3-00004132⟩
- R. Kossakowski, M. Alimi, C. Baglin, A. Baldisseri, A. Baldit, et al.. Production of
and
resonances in oxygen-uranium and sulphur-uranium collisions at 200 GeV/nucleon. Soft Lepton Pair and Photon Production, Sep 1990, Pittsburgh, United States. pp.201-207. ⟨in2p3-00004129⟩
- F. Perrot-Kunne, R. Bertini, M. Costa, H. Catz, A. Chaumeaux, et al.. Measurement of the analyzing power in
p elastic scattering between 439 and 697 MeV/c. Biennal Conference on Low Energy Antiproton Physics 1, Jul 1990, Stockholm, Sweden. ⟨in2p3-00007781⟩
- L. Peralta, C. Baglin, A. Baldisseri, A. Bussiere, J.P. Guillaud, et al.. Meson production in oxygen-uranium and sulfur-uranium collisions at 200 GeV/nucleon. International Conference On Ultrarelativistic Nucleus-Nucleus Collision - Quark Matter '90 8, May 1990, Menton, France. pp.665C-668C. ⟨in2p3-00002543⟩