Professional Documents
Culture Documents
CERN-EP-2021-89
11 May 2021
ALICE Collaboration*
Abstract
1 Introduction
According to quantum chromodynamics (QCD), at high temperatures and high energy densities, nuclear
matter undergoes a phase transition to a deconfined state of quarks and gluons, the quark–gluon plasma
(QGP) [1–5]. Heavy-ion collisions at ultra-relativistic energies make it possible to create and study
such strongly-interacting matter under extreme conditions. The QGP formed in high-energy heavy-ion
collisions has been characterised as a strongly-coupled system with very low shear viscosity. The primary
goal of the heavy-ion program at the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is to study the QCD phase
structure by measuring the properties of QGP matter. One of the important methods for this study is the
measurement of event-by-event fluctuations of experimental observables. These fluctuations are sensitive
to the proximity of the phase transition and thus provide information on the nature and dynamics of the
system formed in the collisions [6–12]. Fluctuation measurements provide a powerful tool to investigate
the response of a system to external perturbations. Theoretical developments suggest that it is possible
to extract quantities related to the thermodynamic properties of the system, such as entropy, chemical
potential, viscosity, specific heat, and isothermal compressibility [6, 13–21]. In particular, isothermal
compressibility expresses how a system’s volume responds to a change in the applied pressure. In the
case of heavy-ion collisions, it has been shown that the isothermal compressibility can be calculated from
the event-by-event fluctuation of charged-particle multiplicity distributions [17].
The measured multiplicity scales with the collision centrality in heavy-ion collisions. The distribution of
particle multiplicities in a given class of centrality and its fluctuations on an event-by-event basis provide
information on particle production mechanisms [22–24]. In this work, the magnitude of the fluctuations
is quantified in terms of the scaled variance,
2
σch
ωch = , (1)
hNch i
2 denote the mean and variance of the charged-particle multiplicity distribution, re-
where hNch i and σch
spectively. Event-by-event multiplicity fluctuations in heavy-ion collisions have been studied earlier at
the CERN SPS by the WA98 [25], NA49 [26, 27], and CERES [28] experiments, and at the Relativistic
Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) by the PHOBOS [29] and PHENIX [30] experiments. A compilation of
available experimental data and comparison to predictions of the event generators are presented else-
where [19]. In this work, measurements of the scaled variance of multiplicity fluctuations are presented
√
as a function of collision centrality in Pb–Pb collisions at sNN = 2.76 TeV using the ALICE detector
at the LHC.
In thermodynamics, the isothermal compressibility (kT ) is defined as the fractional change in the volume
of a system with change of pressure at a constant temperature,
1 ∂V
kT = − , (2)
V ∂ P T
where V, T, P are the volume, temperature, and pressure of the system, respectively. In general, an in-
crease in the applied pressure leads to a decrease in volume, so the negative sign makes the value of
kT positive. In the context of a description in terms of the grand canonical ensemble, which is ap-
proximately applicable for the description of particle production in heavy-ion collisions [5], the scaled
variance of the multiplicity distribution can be expressed as [17],
kB T hNch i
ωch = kT , (3)
V
where kB is the Boltzmann’s constant, and hNch i is the average number of charged particles. Measure-
ments of fluctuations in terms of ωch can be exploited to determine kT and associated thermodynamic
quantities such as the speed of sound within the system [17, 31].
2
√
Charged-particle multiplicity fluctuations in Pb–Pb collisions at sNN = 2.76 TeVALICE Collaboration
Measurements of the multiplicity of produced particles in relativistic heavy-ion collisions are basic to
most of the studies as a majority of the experimentally observed quantities are directly related to the
multiplicity. The variation of the multiplicity depends on the fluctuations in the collision impact pa-
rameter or the number of participant nucleons. Thus, the measured multiplicity fluctuations contain
contributions from event-by-event fluctuations in the number of participant nucleons, which forms the
main background towards the evaluation of any thermodynamic quantity [32, 33]. This has been partly
addressed by selecting narrow intervals in centrality and accounting for the multiplicity variation within
the centrality of the measurement. The remainder of participant fluctuations is estimated in the context
of an MC Glauber model in which nucleus–nucleus collisions are considered to be a superposition of
nucleon–nucleon interactions.
Thus, the background fluctuations contain contributions from independent particle production and cor-
relations corresponding to different physical origins. The background-subtracted fluctuations can be
used in Eq. (3) to estimate kT with the knowledge of the temperature and volume from complementary
analyses of hadron yields, calculated at the chemical freeze-out [34, 35].
The article is organized as follows. In section II, the experimental setup and details of the data analysis
method, including event selection, centrality selection, corrections for finite width of the centrality inter-
vals, and particle losses are presented. In section III, the measurements of the variances of multiplicity
distributions are presented as a function of collision centrality. Additionally, the dependence of the fluc-
tuations on the η and pT ranges of the measured charged hadrons are studied. The results are compared
with calculations from selected event generators. In section IV, methods used to estimate multiplicity
fluctuations resulting from the fluctuations of the number of participants are discussed. An estimation of
the isothermal compressibility for central collisions is made in section V.
3
√
Charged-particle multiplicity fluctuations in Pb–Pb collisions at sNN = 2.76 TeVALICE Collaboration
2.1 Centrality selection and the effect of finite width of the centrality intervals
The collision centrality is estimated based on the sum of the amplitudes of the V0A and V0C signals
(known as the V0M collision centrality estimator) [38]. Events are classified in percentiles of the
hadronic cross section using this estimator. The average number of participants in a centrality class,
denoted by Npart , is obtained by comparing the V0M multiplicity to a geometrical Glauber model [39].
Thus, the centrality of the collision is measured based on the V0M centrality estimator, whereas the
measurement of multiplicity fluctuations is based on charged particles measured within the acceptance
of the TPC.
A given centrality class is a collection of events of measured multiplicity distributions within a range in
V0M corresponding to a mean number of participants, hNpart i. This results in additional fluctuations in
the number of particles within each centrality class. To account for these fluctuations, a centrality interval
width correction is employed. The procedure involves dividing a broad centrality class into several
narrow intervals and correcting for the finite interval using weighted moments according to [40, 41],
∑i ni Xi
X= . (4)
∑i ni
Here, the index i runs over the narrow centrality intervals. Xi and ni are the corresponding moments of
the distribution and number of events in the ith interval, respectively. With this, one obtains, N = ∑i ni as
the total number of events in the broad centrality interval.
The centrality resolution of the combined V0A and V0C signals ranges from 0.5% in central to 2% in
the most peripheral collisions [38]. Correction for finite centrality width has been made with Eq. 4 using
0.5% centrality intervals from central to 40% cross section and 1% intervals for the rest of the centrality
classes.
and
m m hn(xi )(n(xj ) − δxi xj )i
F2 = ∑ ∑ , (6)
i=1 j=i ε(xi )ε(xj )
respectively, where Nch (x) is the number of produced particles in a phase-space bin at x, n(x) is the
number of observed particles at x, ε(x) is the detection efficiency. Here, m denotes the index of the
4
√
Charged-particle multiplicity fluctuations in Pb–Pb collisions at sNN = 2.76 TeVALICE Collaboration
Table 1: Systematic uncertainties on the mean, standard deviation, and scaled variance of charged-particle multi-
plicity distributions from different sources. The ranges of uncertainties quoted correspond to central to peripheral
collisions.
Source hNch i σch ωch
Track selection 3.5 − 4.8% 3.8 − 6.0% 4.0 − 7.5%
Variation of DCAxy 0.5 − 0.9% 0.8 − 1.2% 1.3 − 1.6%
Variation of DCAz 0.4 − 0.9% 0.7 − 1.0% 1.2 − 1.7%
Vertex (Vz ) selection 0.1 − 0.5% 0.5% 0.1 − 0.8%
Removal of Vx ,Vy selec-
0.1% 0.2% 0.5%
tions
Efficiency correction <0.1% 0.7% 1.4%
Magnetic polarity 0.2 − 1.0% 0.5 − 1.5% 0.8 − 1.7%
Total 3.5 − 5.1% 4.1 − 6.4% 4.8 − 8.3%
phase-space bins in terms of η, azimuthal angle ϕ, and pT , and i, j are the bin indexes. δxi xj = 1 if xi = xj
and zero otherwise. The variance of the charged-particle multiplicity is then calculated as:
2
σch = F2 + F1 − F12 . (7)
The correction procedure is validated by a Monte Carlo study employing two million Pb–Pb events
√
at sNN = 2.76 TeV generated using the HIJING event generator [44], and passed through GEANT3
simulations of the experimental setup, taking care of the acceptances of the detectors. The efficiency
dependencies on η, ϕ, and pT are calculated from the ratio of the number of reconstructed charged
particles by the number of produced particles. In a Monte Carlo closure test, the values of hNch i, σch , and
ωch of the efficiency corrected results from the simulated events are compared to those of HIJING at the
generator level to obtain the corrections. By construction, the efficiency corrected values for hNch i match
with those from the generator, whereas σch and ωch values differ by ∼0.7% and ∼1.4%, respectively.
These differences are included in the systematic uncertainties.
5
√
Charged-particle multiplicity fluctuations in Pb–Pb collisions at sNN = 2.76 TeVALICE Collaboration
2500 (a)
ALICE
2000 Pb−Pb s NN = 2.76 TeV
0.2 ≤ p ≤ 2.0 GeV/c
T
-0.8 ≤ η ≤ 0.8
〈N ch 〉
1500
1000
500
80
σ ch
60
40
20
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400
5 (c) 〈N part〉
4
ω ch
2 ALICE
HIJING
1 AMPT-SM
0
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400
〈N part 〉
Figure 1: Mean (hNch i), standard deviation (σch ), and scaled variance (ωch ) of charged-particle multiplicity distri-
butions as a function of the number of participating nucleons for experimental data along with HIJING and AMPT
√
(string melting) models for Pb–Pb collisions at sNN = 2.76 TeV, shown in panels (a), (b), and (c), respectively.
For panel (a), hNpart i for the two models are shifted for better visibility. The statistical uncertainties are smaller
than the size of the markers. The systematic uncertainties are presented as filled boxes.
that the values of hNch i and σch increase with increasing hNpart i, whereas the scaled variances decrease
monotonically.
6
√
Charged-particle multiplicity fluctuations in Pb–Pb collisions at sNN = 2.76 TeVALICE Collaboration
ALICE |η|<0.8
5 Pb−Pb s NN = 2.76 TeV (a)
|η|<0.5
0.2 < p < 2.0 GeV/c
T |η|<0.3
|η|<0.5, estimated
4 |η|<0.3, estimated
ω ch
3
1
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400
〈0.2
N <〉p < 2.0 GeV/c
5 part T (b)
0.2 < p < 1.5 GeV/c
T
0.2 < p < 1.0 GeV/c
T
0.2 < p < 1.5 GeV/c , estimated
T
4 0.2 < p < 1.0 GeV/c , estimated
T
ω ch
2
|η| < 0.8
1
Figure 2: Scaled variances of charged-particle multiplicity distributions for different η and pT ranges as a
√
function of number of participating nucleons measured in Pb–Pb collisions at sNN = 2.76 TeV, shown in panels
(a), and (b), respectively. The estimated ωch for |η| < 0.3 and |η| < 0.5 are obtained from the experimental data
of |η| < 0.8 by using Eq. 8. The estimated ωch for 0.2 < pT < 1.5 GeV/c and 0.2 < pT < 1.0 GeV/c are obtained
from the experimental data of 0.2 < pT < 2.0 GeV/c, also by using Eq. 8. The statistical uncertainties are smaller
than the size of the markers. The systematic uncertainties are presented as filled boxes.
the V0A and V0C pseudorapidity coverages. The results of the scaled variances from the two event
generators are presented in Fig. 1 as a function of the estimated number of participants, Npart . As a
function of increasing centrality, the ωch values obtained from the event generators show upward trends,
which are opposite to those of the experimental data. It is to be noted that the Monte Carlo event
generators are successful in reproducing the mean of multiplicity distributions. This follows from the
fact that the particle multiplicities are proportional to the cross sections. On the other hand, the widths of
the distributions originate from fluctuations and correlations associated with effects of different origins,
such as long-range correlations, Bose–Einstein correlations, resonance decays, and charge conservation.
Because of this, the event generators fall short of reproducing the observed scaled variances.
7
√
Charged-particle multiplicity fluctuations in Pb–Pb collisions at sNN = 2.76 TeVALICE Collaboration
8
√
Charged-particle multiplicity fluctuations in Pb–Pb collisions at sNN = 2.76 TeVALICE Collaboration
300
(a)
150
100
50
0
3 0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400
〈N 〉
(b) part 0.2 ≤ p ≤ 2.0 GeV/c
T
2.5 φ ≤ 2.1 radians
|η| ≤ 0.26
2
ωch
1.5
0.5
0
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400
〈N part 〉
10− 1
〈 N ch 〉 2
σ2
10− 2
ALICE
Pb−Pb sNN = 2.76 TeV
0.2< p < 2.0 GeV/c
−3 T
10 ± 0.03
∝ N -1.40
part
3
10 102 10
〈N part 〉
Figure 3: Comparison of hNch i, ωch , and σch 2 /hN i2 measured in this work based on the acceptance of the
ch
PHENIX experiment with results reported by PHENIX [30] as a function of number of participating nucleons,
shown in panels (a), (b), and (c), respectively. The statistical uncertainties are smaller than the size of the markers.
The systematic uncertainties are presented as filled boxes.
9
√
Charged-particle multiplicity fluctuations in Pb–Pb collisions at sNN = 2.76 TeVALICE Collaboration
5
ALICE ω ch ALICE
Pb−Pb sNN = 2.76 TeV ω chback (Participant Model)
0.2 ≤ p ≤ 2.0 GeV/c pol3
4 T
|η| ≤ 0.5 Extrapolated to N part = 2
ω ch
2
Poisson expectation
1
0
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400
〈N part 〉
Figure 4: Scaled variance as a function of hNpart i for charged-particle multiplicity distributions and background
back ) based on a participant model calculation for |η| < 0.5. The expectation from Poisson-like
fluctuations (ωch
particle production is indicated by the dotted line. The statistical uncertainties are smaller than the size of the
markers. The systematic uncertainties are presented as filled boxes.
In the wounded nucleon model, nucleus–nucleus (such as Pb–Pb) collisions are considered to be a su-
perposition of individual nucleon–nucleon interactions. In this context, the fluctuations in multiplicity
within a given centrality window arise in part from fluctuations in Npart and from fluctuations in the num-
ber of particles (n) produced by each nucleon–nucleon interaction [22, 25, 30]. The values of n and their
fluctuations are also strongly dependent on the acceptance of the detector. Within the context of this
framework, the background fluctuations amount to
back
ωch = ωn + hniωNpart , (10)
where hni is the average number of particles produced by each nucleon–source within the detector ac-
ceptance, ωn is the scaled variance of the fluctuations in n, and ωNpart denotes the fluctuations in Npart .
The variance, ωNpart is calculated using event-by-event Npart from the HIJING model. The distribution
of Npart corresponds to the centrality obtained within the V0 detector coverage (2.8 < η < 5.1 and
−3.7 < η < −1.7). The extracted values of ωNpart are corrected for the effects of the finite width of
the centrality intervals.
For the central rapidity range (|η| < 0.5), the measured number of charged particles produced in pp
√
collisions within 0.2 < pT < 2.0 GeV/c at s = 2.76 TeV [48] yield hni = 1.45±0.07, which is half of the
measured value. In order to calculate ωn , an extrapolation of the measured ωch is made to Npart = 2 using
a polynomial fit function of the form a + bx + cx2 + dx3 , which is shown in Fig. 4. In order to calculate
ωn , an extrapolation of the measured ωch is made to Npart = 2 using a polynomial fit function of the form
a + bx + cx2 + dx3 , which is shown in Fig. 4. Since both the nucleon sources contributing to Npart = 2
are correlated, ωn becomes half of the extrapolated value. This gives ωn = 1.445 ± 0.12, which is also
consistent with the value obtained from the parameterization given by the PHENIX collaboration [30].
back are calculated and plotted as a function of hN
Using the above numbers, ωch part i as in Fig. 4. The
back
obtained trend in ωch mainly arises from the centrality dependence of ωNpart . For most central collisions,
the difference between the measured and background ωch is 0.02 ± 0.18, which is consistent with zero
back is observed to be larger than ω . Thus,
within the uncertainties. Except for most central collisions, ωch ch
it seems likely that the background estimated in this way from the participant model is overestimated.
10
√
Charged-particle multiplicity fluctuations in Pb–Pb collisions at sNN = 2.76 TeVALICE Collaboration
For an ideal gas, the number fluctuations are described by the Poisson distribution. So, if the emitted
particles are uncorrelated, then the multiplicity distributions become Poissonian, the magnitude of ωch
reduces to unity, which is independent of the multiplicity and thus independent of the centrality of the
collision. As seen from Fig. 4, the observed multiplicity fluctuations are significantly above the Poisson
expectation for all centralities.
11
√
Charged-particle multiplicity fluctuations in Pb–Pb collisions at sNN = 2.76 TeVALICE Collaboration
240 ± 20 MeV [52–54]. Using the relation, kT = (9/ρK0 ), one obtains the isothermal compressibility
of nuclear matter to be kT ' 234 ± 20 fm3 /GeV. This is consistent with the expectation that normal nu-
clear matter at low temperature is more compressible than the high temperature matter produced at LHC
energies (as of Eq. 3). From the above estimation, the value of kT = 27.9 ± 3.18 fm3 /GeV, which cor-
responds to multiplicity fluctuations above the Poisson expectation, serves as a conservative upper limit,
and is even significantly below the normal nuclear matter at low temperature.
6 Summary
Measurements of event-by-event fluctuations of charged-particle multiplicities are reported as a function
√
of centrality in Pb–Pb collisions at sNN = 2.76 TeV. The mean, standard deviation, and scaled variances
of charged-particle multiplicities are presented for |η| < 0.8 and 0.2 < pT < 2.0 GeV/c as a function of
centrality. A monotonically decreasing trend for the scaled variance is observed from peripheral to
central collisions. Corresponding results from HIJING and AMPT event generators show a mismatch
with the experimental results. The scaled variance of the multiplicity decreases with the reduction of the
η acceptance of the detector as well as with the decrease of the pT range. The multiplicity fluctuations are
compared to the results from lower beam energies as reported by the PHENIX experiment. For the same
acceptance, the observed scaled variances at RHIC energies are smaller compared to those observed at
the LHC.
As multiplicity fluctuations are related to the isothermal compressibility of the system, the measured
√
fluctuations are used to estimate kT in central Pb–Pb collisions at sNN = 2.76 TeV. The multiplicity
fluctuations above the Poisson expectation case yields kT = 27.9 ± 3.18 fm3 /GeV, which may still con-
tain contributions from additional uncorrelated particle production as well as from several non-thermal
sources as discussed in section 5. This result serves as a conservative upper limit of kT until various con-
tributions to the background are properly understood and evaluated. Furthermore, proper modeling of
background subtraction needs to be developed by accounting for all possible contributions from different
physics origins. The proper estimation of kT at lower collision energies and for different system-sizes
would be interesting for exploring the QCD phase diagram from thermodynamics point of view.
Acknowledgements
The ALICE Collaboration would like to thank all its engineers and technicians for their invaluable con-
tributions to the construction of the experiment and the CERN accelerator teams for the outstanding
performance of the LHC complex. The ALICE Collaboration gratefully acknowledges the resources and
support provided by all Grid centres and the Worldwide LHC Computing Grid (WLCG) collaboration.
The ALICE Collaboration acknowledges the following funding agencies for their support in building
and running the ALICE detector: A. I. Alikhanyan National Science Laboratory (Yerevan Physics In-
stitute) Foundation (ANSL), State Committee of Science and World Federation of Scientists (WFS),
Armenia; Austrian Academy of Sciences, Austrian Science Fund (FWF): [M 2467-N36] and National-
stiftung für Forschung, Technologie und Entwicklung, Austria; Ministry of Communications and High
Technologies, National Nuclear Research Center, Azerbaijan; Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento
Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq), Financiadora de Estudos e Projetos (Finep), Fundação de Amparo à
Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP) and Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS),
Brazil; Ministry of Education of China (MOEC) , Ministry of Science & Technology of China (MSTC)
and National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC), China; Ministry of Science and Education
and Croatian Science Foundation, Croatia; Centro de Aplicaciones Tecnológicas y Desarrollo Nuclear
(CEADEN), Cubaenergía, Cuba; Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic, Czech
Republic; The Danish Council for Independent Research | Natural Sciences, the VILLUM FONDEN and
Danish National Research Foundation (DNRF), Denmark; Helsinki Institute of Physics (HIP), Finland;
12
√
Charged-particle multiplicity fluctuations in Pb–Pb collisions at sNN = 2.76 TeVALICE Collaboration
Commissariat à l’Energie Atomique (CEA) and Institut National de Physique Nucléaire et de Physique
des Particules (IN2P3) and Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), France; Bundesmin-
isterium für Bildung und Forschung (BMBF) and GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung
GmbH, Germany; General Secretariat for Research and Technology, Ministry of Education, Research
and Religions, Greece; National Research, Development and Innovation Office, Hungary; Department
of Atomic Energy Government of India (DAE), Department of Science and Technology, Government
of India (DST), University Grants Commission, Government of India (UGC) and Council of Scientific
and Industrial Research (CSIR), India; Indonesian Institute of Science, Indonesia; Istituto Nazionale
di Fisica Nucleare (INFN), Italy; Institute for Innovative Science and Technology , Nagasaki Institute
of Applied Science (IIST), Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology
(MEXT) and Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) KAKENHI, Japan; Consejo Nacional
de Ciencia (CONACYT) y Tecnología, through Fondo de Cooperación Internacional en Ciencia y Tec-
nología (FONCICYT) and Dirección General de Asuntos del Personal Academico (DGAPA), Mexico;
Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (NWO), Netherlands; The Research Coun-
cil of Norway, Norway; Commission on Science and Technology for Sustainable Development in the
South (COMSATS), Pakistan; Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, Peru; Ministry of Education and
Science, National Science Centre and WUT ID-UB, Poland; Korea Institute of Science and Technol-
ogy Information and National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF), Republic of Korea; Ministry of
Education and Scientific Research, Institute of Atomic Physics and Ministry of Research and Innova-
tion and Institute of Atomic Physics, Romania; Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR), Ministry of
Education and Science of the Russian Federation, National Research Centre Kurchatov Institute, Rus-
sian Science Foundation and Russian Foundation for Basic Research, Russia; Ministry of Education,
Science, Research and Sport of the Slovak Republic, Slovakia; National Research Foundation of South
Africa, South Africa; Swedish Research Council (VR) and Knut & Alice Wallenberg Foundation (KAW),
Sweden; European Organization for Nuclear Research, Switzerland; Suranaree University of Technol-
ogy (SUT), National Science and Technology Development Agency (NSDTA) and Office of the Higher
Education Commission under NRU project of Thailand, Thailand; Turkish Energy, Nuclear and Mineral
Research Agency (TENMAK), Turkey; National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Ukraine; Science
and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), United Kingdom; National Science Foundation of the United
States of America (NSF) and United States Department of Energy, Office of Nuclear Physics (DOE NP),
United States of America.
References
[1] H. Satz, “The Quark-Gluon Plasma: A Short Introduction”, Nucl. Phys. A 862-863 (2011) 4–12,
arXiv:1101.3937 [hep-ph].
[2] C. Ratti, M. A. Thaler, and W. Weise, “Phases of QCD: Lattice thermodynamics and a field
theoretical model”, Phys. Rev. D 73 (2006) 014019, arXiv:hep-ph/0506234.
[3] S. A. Bass, M. Gyulassy, H. Stoecker, and W. Greiner, “Signatures of quark gluon plasma
formation in high-energy heavy ion collisions: A Critical review”, J. Phys. G 25 (1999) R1–R57,
arXiv:hep-ph/9810281.
[4] P. Braun-Munzinger, V. Koch, T. Schäfer, and J. Stachel, “Properties of hot and dense matter from
relativistic heavy ion collisions”, Phys. Rept. 621 (2016) 76–126, arXiv:1510.00442
[nucl-th].
[5] A. Andronic, P. Braun-Munzinger, K. Redlich, and J. Stachel, “Decoding the phase structure of
QCD via particle production at high energy”, Nature 561 no. 7723, (2018) 321–330,
arXiv:1710.09425 [nucl-th].
13
√
Charged-particle multiplicity fluctuations in Pb–Pb collisions at sNN = 2.76 TeVALICE Collaboration
[6] M. A. Stephanov, K. Rajagopal, and E. V. Shuryak, “Signatures of the tricritical point in QCD”,
Phys. Rev. Lett. 81 (1998) 4816–4819, arXiv:hep-ph/9806219.
[8] V. Koch, M. Bleicher, and S. Jeon, “Event-by-event fluctuations and the QGP”, Nucl. Phys. A 698
(2002) 261–268, arXiv:nucl-th/0103084.
[9] S. Jeon and V. Koch, “Charged particle ratio fluctuation as a signal for QGP”, Phys. Rev. Lett. 85
(2000) 2076–2079, arXiv:hep-ph/0003168.
[10] S. Jeon and V. Koch, Event by event fluctuations, pp. 430–490. 2004. arXiv:hep-ph/0304012.
[11] F. Karsch, S. Ejiri, and K. Redlich, “Hadronic fluctuations in the QGP”, Nucl. Phys. A 774 (2006)
619–622, arXiv:hep-ph/0510126.
[12] B. Stokic, B. Friman, and K. Redlich, “Kurtosis and compressibility near the chiral phase
transition”, Phys. Lett. B 673 (2009) 192–196, arXiv:0809.3129 [hep-ph].
[13] L. Van Hove, “Two Problems Concerning Hot Hadronic Matter and High-Energy Collisions
(Equilibrium Formation, Plasma Deflagration)”, Z. Phys. C 21 no. 1, (1983) 93–98.
[14] A. Bialas, “Charge fluctuations in a quark anti-quark system”, Phys. Lett. B 532 (2002) 249–251,
arXiv:hep-ph/0203047.
[15] G. Baym and H. Heiselberg, “Event-by-event fluctuations in ultrarelativistic heavy ion collisions”,
Phys. Lett. B 469 (1999) 7–11, arXiv:nucl-th/9905022.
[16] E. V. Shuryak, “Event per event analysis of heavy ion collisions and thermodynamical
fluctuations”, Phys. Lett. B 423 (1998) 9–14, arXiv:hep-ph/9704456.
[17] S. Mrowczynski, “Hadronic matter compressibility from event by event analysis of heavy ion
collisions”, Phys. Lett. B 430 (1998) 9–14, arXiv:nucl-th/9712030.
[21] S. Basu, S. Chatterjee, R. Chatterjee, T. K. Nayak, and B. K. Nandi, “Specific Heat of Matter
Formed in Relativistic Nuclear Collisions”, Phys. Rev. C 94 no. 4, (2016) 044901,
arXiv:1601.05631 [nucl-ex].
[22] H. Heiselberg, “Event-by-event physics in relativistic heavy ion collisions”, Phys. Rept. 351
(2001) 161–194, arXiv:nucl-th/0003046.
14
√
Charged-particle multiplicity fluctuations in Pb–Pb collisions at sNN = 2.76 TeVALICE Collaboration
[24] S. Basu, S. Thakur, T. K. Nayak, and C. A. Pruneau, “Multiplicity and pseudorapidity density
distributions of charged particles produced in pp, pA and AA collisions at RHIC & LHC
energies”, J. Phys. G 48 no. 2, (2020) 025103, arXiv:2008.07802 [nucl-ex].
[26] NA49 Collaboration, C. Alt et al., “Centrality and system size dependence of multiplicity
fluctuations in nuclear collisions at 158-A/GeV”, Phys. Rev. C 75 (2007) 064904,
arXiv:nucl-ex/0612010.
[27] NA49 Collaboration, C. Alt et al., “Electric charge fluctuations in central Pb+Pb collisions at
20-A-GeV, 30-A-GeV, 40-A-GeV, 80-A-GeV, and 158-A-GeV”, Phys. Rev. C 70 (2004) 064903,
arXiv:nucl-ex/0406013.
[30] PHENIX Collaboration, A. Adare et al., “Charged hadron multiplicity fluctuations in Au+Au and
√
Cu+Cu collisions from sNN = 22.5 to 200 GeV”, Phys. Rev. C 78 (2008) 044902,
arXiv:0805.1521 [nucl-ex].
[31] D. Sahu, S. Tripathy, R. Sahoo, and A. R. Dash, “Multiplicity dependence of shear viscosity,
√
isothermal compressibility and speed of sound in pp collisions at s = 7 TeV”, Eur. Phys. J. A 56
no. 7, (2020) 187, arXiv:2002.05054 [hep-ph].
[33] P. Braun-Munzinger, A. Rustamov, and J. Stachel, “Bridging the gap between event-by-event
fluctuation measurements and theory predictions in relativistic nuclear collisions”, Nucl. Phys. A
960 (2017) 114–130, arXiv:1612.00702 [nucl-th].
[34] N. Sharma, J. Cleymans, B. Hippolyte, and M. Paradza, “A Comparison of p-p, p-Pb, Pb-Pb
Collisions in the Thermal Model: Multiplicity Dependence of Thermal Parameters”, Phys. Rev. C
99 no. 4, (2019) 044914, arXiv:1811.00399 [hep-ph].
[35] ALICE Collaboration, J. Adam et al., “Production of light nuclei and anti-nuclei in pp and Pb-Pb
collisions at energies available at the CERN Large Hadron Collider”, Phys. Rev. C 93 no. 2, (2016)
024917, arXiv:1506.08951 [nucl-ex].
[36] ALICE Collaboration, K. Aamodt et al., “The ALICE experiment at the CERN LHC”, JINST 3
(2008) S08002.
[37] R. Brun, F. Bruyant, F. Carminati, S. Giani, M. Maire, A. McPherson, G. Patrick, and L. Urban,
“GEANT Detector Description and Simulation Tool”,.
√
[38] ALICE Collaboration, B. Abelev et al., “Centrality determination of Pb-Pb collisions at sNN =
2.76 TeV with ALICE”, Phys. Rev. C 88 no. 4, (2013) 044909, arXiv:1301.4361 [nucl-ex].
15
√
Charged-particle multiplicity fluctuations in Pb–Pb collisions at sNN = 2.76 TeVALICE Collaboration
[39] M. L. Miller, K. Reygers, S. J. Sanders, and P. Steinberg, “Glauber modeling in high energy
nuclear collisions”, Ann. Rev. Nucl. Part. Sci. 57 (2007) 205–243, arXiv:nucl-ex/0701025.
[40] X. Luo, J. Xu, B. Mohanty, and N. Xu, “Volume fluctuation and auto-correlation effects in the
moment analysis of net-proton multiplicity distributions in heavy-ion collisions”, J. Phys. G 40
(2013) 105104, arXiv:1302.2332 [nucl-ex].
[41] N. R. Sahoo, S. De, and T. K. Nayak, “Baseline study for higher moments of net-charge
distributions at energies available at the BNL Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider”, Phys. Rev. C 87
no. 4, (2013) 044906, arXiv:1210.7206 [nucl-ex].
[42] A. Bzdak and V. Koch, “Local Efficiency Corrections to Higher Order Cumulants”, Phys. Rev. C
91 no. 2, (2015) 027901, arXiv:1312.4574 [nucl-th].
[43] X. Luo, “Unified description of efficiency correction and error estimation for moments of
conserved quantities in heavy-ion collisions”, Phys. Rev. C 91 no. 3, (2015) 034907,
arXiv:1410.3914 [physics.data-an]. [Erratum: Phys.Rev.C 94, 059901 (2016)].
[44] W.-T. Deng, X.-N. Wang, and R. Xu, “Gluon shadowing and hadron production in heavy-ion
collisions at LHC”, Phys. Lett. B 701 (2011) 133–136, arXiv:1011.5907 [nucl-th].
[45] X. Luo, “Error Estimation for Moments Analysis in Heavy Ion Collision Experiment”, J. Phys. G
39 (2012) 025008, arXiv:1109.0593 [physics.data-an].
[46] Z.-W. Lin, C. M. Ko, B.-A. Li, B. Zhang, and S. Pal, “A Multi-phase transport model for
relativistic heavy ion collisions”, Phys. Rev. C 72 (2005) 064901, arXiv:nucl-th/0411110.
[47] PHENIX Collaboration, J. T. Mitchell, “Scaling Properties of Fluctuation and Correlation Results
from PHENIX”, J. Phys. G 34 (2007) S911–914, arXiv:nucl-ex/0701062.
[48] ALICE Collaboration, S. Acharya et al., “Transverse momentum spectra and nuclear modification
factors of charged particles in pp, p-Pb and Pb-Pb collisions at the LHC”, JHEP 11 (2018) 013,
arXiv:1802.09145 [nucl-ex].
[51] M. Petrán, J. Letessier, V. Petráček, and J. Rafelski, “Hadron production and quark-gluon plasma
√
hadronization in Pb-Pb collisions at sNN = 2.76 TeV”, Phys. Rev. C 88 no. 3, (2013) 034907,
arXiv:1303.2098 [hep-ph].
[53] P. Danielewicz, R. Lacey, and W. G. Lynch, “Determination of the equation of state of dense
matter”, Science 298 (2002) 1592–1596, arXiv:nucl-th/0208016.
[54] J. R. Stone, N. J. Stone, and S. A. Moszkowski, “Incompressibility in finite nuclei and nuclear
matter”, Phys. Rev. C 89 no. 4, (2014) 044316, arXiv:1404.0744 [nucl-th].
16
√
Charged-particle multiplicity fluctuations in Pb–Pb collisions at sNN = 2.76 TeVALICE Collaboration
17
√
Charged-particle multiplicity fluctuations in Pb–Pb collisions at sNN = 2.76 TeVALICE Collaboration
18
√
Charged-particle multiplicity fluctuations in Pb–Pb collisions at sNN = 2.76 TeVALICE Collaboration
19
√
Charged-particle multiplicity fluctuations in Pb–Pb collisions at sNN = 2.76 TeVALICE Collaboration
Affiliation Notes
I Deceased
II Also at: Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic
Development (ENEA), Bologna, Italy
III Also at: Dipartimento DET del Politecnico di Torino, Turin, Italy
IV Also at: M.V. Lomonosov Moscow State University, D.V. Skobeltsyn Institute of Nuclear, Physics,
Moscow, Russia
V Also at: Institute of Theoretical Physics, University of Wroclaw, Poland
Collaboration Institutes
1 A.I. Alikhanyan National Science Laboratory (Yerevan Physics Institute) Foundation, Yerevan,
Armenia
2 AGH University of Science and Technology, Cracow, Poland
3 Bogolyubov Institute for Theoretical Physics, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Kiev,
Ukraine
4 Bose Institute, Department of Physics and Centre for Astroparticle Physics and Space Science
Slovakia
14 COMSATS University Islamabad, Islamabad, Pakistan
15 Creighton University, Omaha, Nebraska, United States
16 Department of Physics, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, India
17 Department of Physics, Pusan National University, Pusan, Republic of Korea
18 Department of Physics, Sejong University, Seoul, Republic of Korea
20
√
Charged-particle multiplicity fluctuations in Pb–Pb collisions at sNN = 2.76 TeVALICE Collaboration
Norway
38 Faculty of Nuclear Sciences and Physical Engineering, Czech Technical University in Prague,
Germany
41 Fudan University, Shanghai, China
42 Gangneung-Wonju National University, Gangneung, Republic of Korea
43 Gauhati University, Department of Physics, Guwahati, India
44 Helmholtz-Institut für Strahlen- und Kernphysik, Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn,
Bonn, Germany
45 Helsinki Institute of Physics (HIP), Helsinki, Finland
46 High Energy Physics Group, Universidad Autónoma de Puebla, Puebla, Mexico
47 Hiroshima University, Hiroshima, Japan
48 Hochschule Worms, Zentrum für Technologietransfer und Telekommunikation (ZTT), Worms,
Germany
49 Horia Hulubei National Institute of Physics and Nuclear Engineering, Bucharest, Romania
50 Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IIT), Mumbai, India
51 Indian Institute of Technology Indore, Indore, India
52 Indonesian Institute of Sciences, Jakarta, Indonesia
53 INFN, Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati, Frascati, Italy
54 INFN, Sezione di Bari, Bari, Italy
55 INFN, Sezione di Bologna, Bologna, Italy
56 INFN, Sezione di Cagliari, Cagliari, Italy
57 INFN, Sezione di Catania, Catania, Italy
58 INFN, Sezione di Padova, Padova, Italy
59 INFN, Sezione di Pavia, Pavia, Italy
60 INFN, Sezione di Roma, Rome, Italy
61 INFN, Sezione di Torino, Turin, Italy
21
√
Charged-particle multiplicity fluctuations in Pb–Pb collisions at sNN = 2.76 TeVALICE Collaboration
Netherlands
65 Institute for Nuclear Research, Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia
66 Institute of Experimental Physics, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Košice, Slovakia
67 Institute of Physics, Homi Bhabha National Institute, Bhubaneswar, India
68 Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague, Czech Republic
69 Institute of Space Science (ISS), Bucharest, Romania
70 Institut für Kernphysik, Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität Frankfurt, Frankfurt, Germany
71 Instituto de Ciencias Nucleares, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City, Mexico
72 Instituto de Física, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), Porto Alegre, Brazil
73 Instituto de Física, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City, Mexico
74 iThemba LABS, National Research Foundation, Somerset West, South Africa
75 Jeonbuk National University, Jeonju, Republic of Korea
76 Johann-Wolfgang-Goethe Universität Frankfurt Institut für Informatik, Fachbereich Informatik und
Grenoble, France
82 Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California, United States
83 Lund University Department of Physics, Division of Particle Physics, Lund, Sweden
84 Moscow Institute for Physics and Technology, Moscow, Russia
85 Nagasaki Institute of Applied Science, Nagasaki, Japan
86 Nara Women’s University (NWU), Nara, Japan
87 National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, School of Science, Department of Physics , Athens,
Greece
88 National Centre for Nuclear Research, Warsaw, Poland
89 National Institute of Science Education and Research, Homi Bhabha National Institute, Jatni, India
90 National Nuclear Research Center, Baku, Azerbaijan
91 National Research Centre Kurchatov Institute, Moscow, Russia
92 Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
93 Nikhef, National institute for subatomic physics, Amsterdam, Netherlands
94 NRC Kurchatov Institute IHEP, Protvino, Russia
95 NRC «Kurchatov»Institute - ITEP, Moscow, Russia
96 NRNU Moscow Engineering Physics Institute, Moscow, Russia
97 Nuclear Physics Group, STFC Daresbury Laboratory, Daresbury, United Kingdom
98 Nuclear Physics Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Řež u Prahy, Czech Republic
99 Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, United States
100 Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, United States
101 Petersburg Nuclear Physics Institute, Gatchina, Russia
102 Physics department, Faculty of science, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
103 Physics Department, Panjab University, Chandigarh, India
104 Physics Department, University of Jammu, Jammu, India
105 Physics Department, University of Rajasthan, Jaipur, India
106 Physikalisches Institut, Eberhard-Karls-Universität Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
107 Physikalisches Institut, Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany
22
√
Charged-particle multiplicity fluctuations in Pb–Pb collisions at sNN = 2.76 TeVALICE Collaboration
Poland
121 The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, United States
122 Universidad Autónoma de Sinaloa, Culiacán, Mexico
123 Universidade de São Paulo (USP), São Paulo, Brazil
124 Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP), Campinas, Brazil
125 Universidade Federal do ABC, Santo Andre, Brazil
126 University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa
127 University of Houston, Houston, Texas, United States
128 University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä, Finland
129 University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas, United States
130 University of Liverpool, Liverpool, United Kingdom
131 University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China
132 University of South-Eastern Norway, Tonsberg, Norway
133 University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee, United States
134 University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
135 University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
136 University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba, Japan
137 Université Clermont Auvergne, CNRS/IN2P3, LPC, Clermont-Ferrand, France
138 Université de Lyon, CNRS/IN2P3, Institut de Physique des 2 Infinis de Lyon , Lyon, France
139 Université de Strasbourg, CNRS, IPHC UMR 7178, F-67000 Strasbourg, France, Strasbourg, France
140 Université Paris-Saclay Centre d’Etudes de Saclay (CEA), IRFU, Départment de Physique
23