Centrality, rapidity and transverse momentum dependence of $J/\psi$ suppression in Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}$=2.76 TeV
The inclusive J/.nuclear modification factor (R-AA) in Pb-Pb collisions at root(NN)-N-S = 2.76TeVhas been measured by ALICE as a function of centrality in the e+ e-decay channel at mid-rapidity (| y| < 0.8) and as a function of centrality, transverse momentum and rapidity in the + -decay channel at forward-rapidity (2.5 < y < 4). The J/.yields measured in Pb-Pb are suppressed compared to those in ppcollisions scaled by the number of binary collisions. The RAAintegrated over a centrality range corresponding to 90% of the inelastic Pb-Pb cross section is 0.72 - 0.06(stat.) - 0.10(syst.) at mid-rapidity and 0.58 - 0.01(stat.) - 0.09(syst.) at forward-rapidity. At low transverse momentum, significantly larger values of RAAare measured at forward-rapidity compared to measurements at lower energy. These features suggest that a contribution to the J/.yield originates from charm quark (re) combination in the deconfined partonic medium.

title: Transverse momentum spectra of charged particles in proton-proton collisions at sqrt(s) = 900 GeV with ALICE at the LHC
abstract: The inclusive charged particle transverse momentum distribution is measured in proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s} = 900$~GeV at the LHC using the ALICE detector. The measurement is performed in the central pseudorapidity region $(|\eta|_{\rm INEL}=0.483\pm0.001$~(stat.)~$\pm0.007$~(syst.)~GeV/$c$ and $\left_{\rm NSD}=0.489\pm0.001$~(stat.)~$\pm0.007$~(syst.)~GeV/$c$, respectively. The data exhibit a slightly larger $\left$ than measurements in wider pseudorapidity intervals. The results are compared to simulations with the Monte Carlo event generators PYTHIA and PHOJET

title: Alignment of the ALICE inner tracking system with cosmic-ray tracks
abstract: ALICE (A Large Ion Collider Experiment) is the LHC (Large Hadron Collider) experiment devoted to investigating the strongly interacting matter created in nucleus-nucleus collisions at the LHC energies. The ALICE ITS, Inner Tracking System, consists of six cylindrical layers of silicon detectors with three different technologies; in the outward direction: two layers of pixel detectors, two layers each of drift, and strip detectors. The number of parameters to be determined in the spatial alignment of the 2198 sensor modules of the ITS is about 13,000. The target alignment precision is well below 10 mu m in some cases (pixels). The sources of alignment information include survey measurements, and the reconstructed tracks from cosmic rays and from proton-proton collisions. The main track-based alignment method uses the Millepede global approach. An iterative local method was developed and used as well. We present the results obtained for the ITS alignment using about 10(5) charged tracks from cosmic rays that have been collected during summer 2008, with the ALICE solenoidal magnet switched off.

title: Performance of the ALICE Experiment at the CERN LHC
abstract: ALICE is the heavy-ion experiment at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. The experiment continuously took data during the first physics campaign of the machine from fall 2009 until early 2013, using proton and lead-ion beams. In this paper we describe the running environment and the data handling procedures, and discuss the performance of the ALICE detectors and analysis methods for various physics observables.

title: The ALICE experiment at the CERN LHC
abstract: ALICE (A Large Ion Collider Experiment) is a general-purpose, heavy-ion detector at the CERN LHC which focuses on QCD, the strong-interaction sector of the Standard Model. It is designed to address the physics of strongly interacting matter and the quark-gluon plasma at extreme values of energy density and temperature in nucleus-nucleus collisions. Besides running with Pb ions, the physics programme includes collisions with lighter ions, lower energy running and dedicated proton-nucleus runs. ALICE will also take data with proton beams at the top LHC energy to collect reference data for the heavy-ion programme and to address several QCD topics for which ALICE is complementary to the other LHC detectors. The ALICE detector has been built by a collaboration including currently over 1000 physicists and engineers from 105 Institutes in 30 countries. Its overall dimensions are 161626 m3 with a total weight of approximately 10 000 t. The experiment consists of 18 different detector systems each with its own specific technology choice and design constraints, driven both by the physics requirements and the experimental conditions expected at LHC. The most stringent design constraint is to cope with the extreme particle multiplicity anticipated in central Pb-Pb collisions. The different subsystems were optimized to provide high-momentum resolution as well as excellent Particle Identification (PID) over a broad range in momentum, up to the highest multiplicities predicted for LHC. This will allow for comprehensive studies of hadrons, electrons, muons, and photons produced in the collision of heavy nuclei. Most detector systems are scheduled to be installed and ready for data taking by mid-2008 when the LHC is scheduled to start operation, with the exception of parts of the Photon Spectrometer (PHOS), Transition Radiation Detector (TRD) and Electro Magnetic Calorimeter (EMCal). These detectors will be completed for the high-luminosity ion run expected in 2010. This paper describes in detail the detector components as installed for the first data taking in the summer of 2008.

title: Production and quality control of STAR-TOF MRPC
abstract: Multi-gap resistive plate chamber (MRPC) has been adopted to construct the full barrel time-of-flight (TOF) detector for the STAR experiment at RHIC. The cylindrical TOF covers a total area of approximately 64 m 2 and uses 4032 MRPC modules. 70% of the modules were produced in Tsinghua University and the rest were fabricated in University of Science and Technology of China (USTC). In this paper, the production facilities, manufacturing procedures, quality control methods and test results for the Tsinghua MRPC modules are described.

title: A robust distance measurement and dark energy constraints from the spherically averaged correlation function of Sloan Digital Sky Survey luminous red Galaxies
abstract: We measure the effective distance to z = 0.26, DV (0.26), and mh 2 from the overall shape of the spherically-averaged two-point correlati on function of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Data Release 7 (DR7) volume-limited luminous red galaxy (LRG) sample, without assuming a dark energy model or a flat Universe. We giv e the mean and covariance matrix of DV (0.26), mh 2 , bh 2 , and ns. We show that these provide an efficient and accurate summary of the volume-limited LRG data. With flat priors on bh 2 and ns (7σWMAP7), we find mh 2 = 0.131 ± 0.020, and rs/DV (0.26) = 0.1466 +0.0068 0.0073 (the ratio of the sound horizon at the drag epoch to the effective distance to z = 0.26). We find that measurements of mh 2 or m are biased low if flux-limited (instead of volume-limited) L RG sample is used. By scaling the spherically-averaged correlation fun ction, we find the Hubble parameter H(0.26) = 79 +12 13 km s 1 Mpc 1 and the angular diameter distance DA(0.26) = 848 +86 88 Mpc. Combining our results with the cosmic microwave background and supernova data, we obtain k = 0.0059 +0.0092 0.0093 andw = 1.023 +0.054 0.053 (assuming a constant dark energy equation of state). We use LasDamas SDSS mock catalogs to compute the covariance matrix of the correlation function, and investigate the use of lognormal catal ogs as an alternative. We find that the input correlation function can be accurately recovered from lognormal catalogs, although they give larger errors on all scales (especially on small sc ales) compared to the mock catalogs derived from cosmological N-body simulations.

title: Polarization transfer in quasifree (p, n) reactions at 495 MeV
abstract: A complete set of polarization-transfer observables has been measured for quasifree ([ital [rvec p]],[ital [rvec n]]) reactions on [sup 2]H, [sup 12]C, and [sup 40]Ca at a bombarding energy of 495 MeV and a laboratory scattering angle of 18[degree]. The data span an energy-loss range from 0 to 160 MeV, with a corresponding momentum transfer range of [ital q][sub c.m.]=1.7--1.9 fm[sup [minus]1]. The laboratory observables are used to construct partial cross sections proportional to the nonspin response and three orthogonal spin responses. These results are compared to the transverse spin response measured in deep inelastic electron scattering and to nuclear responses based on the random phase approximation. The polarization observables for all three targets are remarkably similar and reveal no evidence for an enhancement of the spin-longitudinal nuclear response relative to the spin-transverse response. These results suggest the need for substantial modifications to the standard form assumed for the residual particle-hole interaction.

title: Model-Independent Distance Measurements from Gamma-Ray Bursts and Constraints on Dark Energy
abstract: Gamma-ray bursts (GRB) are the most energetic events in the Universe and provide a complementary probe of dark energy by allowing the measurement of cosmic expansion history that extends to redshifts greater than 6. Unlike type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia), GRBs must be calibrated for each cosmological model considered, because of the lack of a nearby sample of GRBs for model-independent calibration. For a flat universe with a cosmological constant, we find {omega}{sub m}=0.25{sub -0.11}{sup +0.12} from 69 GRBs alone. We show that the current GRB data can be summarized by a set of model-independent distance measurements, with negligible loss of information. We constrain a dark energy equation of state linear in the cosmic scale factor using these distance measurements from GRBs, together with the ''Union'' compilation of SNe Ia, WMAP five-year observations, and the SDSS (Sloan Digital Sky Survey) baryon acoustic oscillation scale measurement. We find that a cosmological constant is consistent with current data at 68% confidence level for a flat universe. Our results provide a simple and robust method to incorporate GRB data in a joint analysis of cosmological data to constrain dark energy.

title: CENTRALITY, SYSTEM SIZE AND ENERGY DEPENDENCE OF CHARGED PARTICLE PSEUDORAPIDITY DISTRIBUTION
abstract: Utilizing the three-fireball picture within the quark combination model, we study systematically the charged particle pseudorapidity distributions in both Au + Au and Cu + Cu collision systems as a function of collision centrality and energy, , 62.4, 130 and 200 GeV, in the full pseudorapidity range. We find that: (i) the contribution from leading particles to dNch/dη distributions increases with the decrease of the collision centrality and energy respectively; (ii) the number of leading particles is almost independent of the collision energy, but it does depend on the nucleon participants Npart; (iii) if Cu + Cu and Au + Au collisions at the same collision energy are selected to have the same Npart, the resulting charged particle dN/dη distributions are nearly identical, in both the midrapidity particle density and the width of the distribution; this is true for both 62.4 GeV and 200 GeV data; (iv) the limiting fragmentation phenomenon is reproduced. We predict the total multiplicity and pseudorapidity distribution for the charged particles in Pb + Pb collisions at . Finally, we give a qualitative analysis of Nch/〈Npart/2〉 and dNch/dη/〈Npart/2〉|η≈0 as a function of and Npart from the RHIC to the LHC.