Net-charge fluctuations in Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}$ = 2.76 TeV

TL;DR

This paper presents the first measurement of net-charge fluctuations in Pb-Pb collisions at 2.76 TeV, showing a decrease with collision centrality and energy, consistent with QGP formation predictions.

Contribution

It provides novel experimental data on net-charge fluctuations at LHC energies, extending previous measurements and supporting QGP formation theories.

Findings

Fluctuations decrease from peripheral to central collisions.

Fluctuations are smaller at LHC compared to RHIC.

Results align with theoretical predictions for QGP formation.

Abstract

We report the first measurement of the net-charge fluctuations in Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}$ = 2.76 TeV, measured with the ALICE detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. The dynamical fluctuations per unit entropy are observed to decrease when going from peripheral to central collisions. An additional reduction in the amount of fluctuations is seen in comparison to the results from lower energies. We examine the dependence of fluctuations on the pseudorapidity interval, which may account for the dilution of fluctuations during the evolution of the system. We find that the fluctuations at LHC are smaller compared to the measurements at the Relativistic heavy Ion Collider (RHIC), and as such, closer to what has been theoretically predicted for the formation of Quark-Gluon Plasma (QGP).