Longitudinal Asymmetry and its Measurable Effects in Pb-Pb Collisions at 2.76 TeV

TL;DR

This paper investigates how event-by-event fluctuations in nucleon participation during Pb-Pb collisions at 2.76 TeV influence measurable asymmetries and global variables like rapidity distributions.

Contribution

It introduces a method to quantify longitudinal asymmetry effects in heavy-ion collisions and correlates these with observable fluctuations.

Findings

Fluctuations in participant nucleons affect rapidity distributions.

Zero-degree calorimeter energy differences serve as a measure of fluctuations.

Asymmetry impacts global collision variables.

Abstract

Collisions of identical nuclei at finite impact parameter have an unequal number of participating nucleons from each nucleus due to fluctuations. The event-by-event fluctuations have been estimated by measuring the difference of energy in the zero-degree calorimeters on either side of interaction vertex. The fluctuations affect the global variables such as the rapidity distributions, and the effect has been correlated with a measure of these fluctuations.