First Results from Pb+Pb collisions at the LHC

TL;DR

This paper reports the initial findings from lead-lead collisions at the LHC, marking a significant advancement in ultra-relativistic heavy ion physics with unprecedented energy levels.

Contribution

It provides the first experimental results from the LHC's heavy ion program, demonstrating the collider's capabilities and opening new research avenues.

Findings

First results from Pb+Pb collisions at 2.76 TeV/nucleon

Observation of new phenomena at higher energies

Comparison with previous accelerators shows significant advancements

Abstract

At the end of 2010, the CERN Large Hadron Collider started operation with heavy ion beams, colliding lead nuclei at a centre-of-mass energy of 2.76 TeV/nucleon and opening a new era in ultra-relativistic heavy ion physics at energies exceeding previous accelerators by more than an order of magnitude. This review summarizes the results from the first year of heavy ion physics at LHC obtained by the three experiments participating in the heavy ion program, ALICE, ATLAS, and CMS.