Constraining the Chiral Magnetic Effect with charge-dependent azimuthal correlations in Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{\it{s}_{\mathrm{NN}}}$ = 2.76 and 5.02 TeV

TL;DR

This study investigates charge-dependent correlations in Pb-Pb collisions at high energies to constrain the Chiral Magnetic Effect, finding that background effects dominate the observed signals and challenging previous interpretations.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed analysis of charge-dependent correlations at these energies, quantifies background contributions, and tests models against experimental data.

Findings

Charge-dependent signals increase in peripheral collisions.

Background effects from local charge conservation dominate the measurements.

Models incorporating local charge conservation cannot fully explain the data.

Abstract

Systematic studies of charge-dependent two- and three-particle correlations in Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{\it{s}_\mathrm{{NN}}} = $ 2.76 and 5.02 TeV used to probe the Chiral Magnetic Effect (CME) are presented. These measurements are performed for charged particles in the pseudorapidity ($\eta$) and transverse momentum ($p_{\rm{T}}$) ranges $\left|\eta \right| < 0.8$ and $0.2 < p_{\mathrm{T}} < 5$ GeV/$c$. A significant charge-dependent signal that becomes more pronounced for peripheral collisions is reported for the CME-sensitive correlators $\gamma_{1,1} = \langle \cos (\varphi_{\alpha} +\varphi_{\beta} - 2\Psi_{2}) \rangle$ and $\gamma_{1,-3} = \langle \cos (\varphi_{\alpha} -3\varphi_{\beta} + 2\Psi_{2}) \rangle$. The results are used to estimate the contribution of background effects, associated with local charge conservation coupled to anisotropic flow modulations, to measurements of the CME. A blast-wave parametrisation that incorporates local charge conservation tuned to reproduce the centrality dependent background effects is not able to fully describe the measured $\gamma_{1,1}$. Finally, the charge and centrality dependence of mixed-harmonics three-particle correlations, of the form $\gamma_{1,2} = \langle \cos (\varphi_{\alpha} +2\varphi_{\beta} - 3\Psi_{3}) \rangle$, which are insensitive to the CME signal, verify again that background contributions dominate the measurement of $\gamma_{1,1}$.