Centrality dependence of the pseudorapidity density distribution for charged particles in Pb–Pb collisions at sNN=5.02 TeV

• Published in: Physics letters. B 2017-09, Vol.772 (C), p.567-577
• Main Authors: Agnello, M., Alfaro Molina, R., Alici, A., Antičić, T., Bearden, I.G., Betev, L., Bielčík, J., Boldizsár, L., Borel, H., Borissov, A., Broz, M., Bruna, E., Carena, W., Castillo Castellanos, J., Castro, A.J., Chojnacki, M., Christiansen, P., Colella, D., Cormier, T.M., Cortese, P., Dahms, T., Danisch, M.C., Das, D., De, S., de Conti, C., Di Mauro, A., Espagnon, B., Evdokimov, S., Ferreiro, E.G., Fokin, S., Fronze, G.G., Furget, C., Garabatos, C., Garg, P., Gotovac, S., Gruber, L., Gupta, A., Hellbär, E., Herrera Corral, G., Ivanov, V., Izucheev, V., Jahnke, C., Jusko, A., Kalweit, A., Kim, M., Kondratyeva, N., Kučera, V., Kuhn, C., Kumar, L., Kushpil, S., Lazaridis, L., León Monzón, I., Lisa, M.A., Lopez, X., Maevskaya, A., Mager, M., Malzacher, P., Manko, V., Martinez, J.A.L., Miake, Y., Mischke, A., Moreno, L.A.P., Murakami, H., Murray, S., Nomokonov, P., Oh, S., Ohlson, A., Pagano, D., Pagano, P., Parmar, S., Pimentel, L.O.D.L., Renfordt, R., Reshetin, A., Richert, T., Rossi, A., Roy, A., Ryabinkin, E., Ryabov, Y., Saarinen, S., Schiaua, C., Schmidt, M., Seger, J.E., Sharma, N., Shigaki, K., Shou, Q., Sielewicz, K.M., Silvestre, C., Song, M., Tarzila, M.G., Tauro, A., Trogolo, S., Utrobicic, A., Vernet, R., Wessels, J.P., Whitehead, A.M., Windelband, B., Yokoyama, H., Yurchenko, V., Zardoshti, N., Zimmermann, A.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Fysik; Natural Sciences; Naturvetenskap; Physical Sciences; Subatomic Physics; Subatomär fysik
• ISSN: 0370-2693; 1873-2445
• DOI: 10.1016/j.physletb.2017.07.017

We present the charged-particle pseudorapidity density in Pb–Pb collisions at sNN=5.02 TeV in centrality classes measured by ALICE. The measurement covers a wide pseudorapidity range from −3.5 to 5, which is sufficient for reliable estimates of the total number of charged particles produced in the collisions. For the most central (0–5%) collisions we find 21400±1300, while for the most peripheral (80–90%) we find 230±38. This corresponds to an increase of (27±4)% over the results at sNN=2.76 TeV previously reported by ALICE. The energy dependence of the total number of charged particles produced in heavy-ion collisions is found to obey a modified power-law like behaviour. The charged-particle pseudorapidity density of the most central collisions is compared to model calculations — none of which fully describes the measured distribution. We also present an estimate of the rapidity density of charged particles. The width of that distribution is found to exhibit a remarkable proportionality to the beam rapidity, independent of the collision energy from the top SPS to LHC energies.