Performance of the ALICE Experiment at the CERN LHC
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: Inclusive $J/\psi$ production in $pp$ collisions at $\sqrt{s} = 2.76$ TeV
abstract: The ALICE Collaboration has measured inclusive J/psi production in pp collisions at a center of mass energy sqrt(s)=2.76 TeV at the LHC. The results presented in this Letter refer to the rapidity ranges |y|<0.9 and 2.5

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: Centrality Dependence of Charged Particle Production at Large Transverse Momentum in Pb--Pb Collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm{NN}}} = 2.76$ TeV
abstract: The inclusive transverse momentum ($p_{\rm T}$) distributions of primary charged particles are measured in the pseudo-rapidity range $|\eta|<0.8$ as a function of event centrality in Pb--Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm{NN}}}=2.76$ TeV with ALICE at the LHC. The data are presented in the $p_{\rm T}$ range $0.1530$ GeV/$c$. In peripheral collisions (70--80%), the suppression is weaker with $R_{\rm{AA}} \approx 0.7$ almost independently of $p_{\rm T}$. The measured nuclear modification factors are compared to other measurements and model calculations.

title: Hadron calorimetry in the L3 detector
abstract: The characteristics of the L3 hadron calorimeter as realized in the observation of hadronic jets and other events from e + e − collisions at LEP are presented and discussed. The pattern-recognition algorithm utilizing the fine granulatiry of the calorimeter is described, and the observed overall resolution of 10.2% for hadron jets from Z decay is reported. The use of the calorimeter in providing information on muon energy losses is also noted.

title: Prospect of a very long baseline neutrino oscillation experiment HIPA to Beijing
abstract: We discuss the prospects of a very long baseline neutrino oscillation experiment from HIPA to Beijing. The current understanding of neutrino oscillations, both theoretically and experimentally, are summarized. The figure of merits for interested physics measurements are defined and compared at different distances: 300 km, 700 km, 2100 km and 3000 km. We conclude that a baseline more than 2100 km is optimal. A large water cerenkov calorimeter was proposed and its performance is satisfactory from a Monte Carlo simulation study. Such a large detector can do many other measurements on cosmic-rays physics and astrophysics.

title: Implications of LHCb measurements and future prospects
abstract: During 2011 the LHCb experiment at CERN collected 1.0 fb−1 of $\sqrt{s} = 7\mbox{~TeV}$pp collisions. Due to the large heavy quark production cross-sections, these data provide unprecedented samples of heavy flavoured hadrons. The first results from LHCb have made a significant impact on the flavour physics landscape and have definitively proved the concept of a dedicated experiment in the forward region at a hadron collider. This document discusses the implications of these first measurements on classes of extensions to the Standard Model, bearing in mind the interplay with the results of searches for on-shell production of new particles at ATLAS and CMS. The physics potential of an upgrade to the LHCb detector, which would allow an order of magnitude more data to be collected, is emphasised.

title: Central gas entropy excess as direct evidence for AGN feedback in galaxy groups and clusters
abstract: By analyzing Chandra X-ray data of a sample of 21 galaxy groups and 19 galaxy clusters, we find that in 31 sample systems there exists a significant central ( R ≤10 h -1 71 kpc) gas entropy excess (∆ K 0 ), which corresponds to ≃ 0.1 - 0.5 keV per gas particle, beyond the power-law model that best fits the radial entropy profile of the outer regions. We also find a distinct correlation between the central entropy excess ∆ K 0 and K-band luminosity LK of the central dominating galaxies (CDGs), which is scaled as ∆ K 0 ∝ L 1.6±0.4 K , where L K is tightly associated with the mass of the supermassive black hole hosted in the CDG. In fact, if an effective mass-to-energy conversion- efficiency of 0.02 is assumed for the accretion process, the cumulative AGN feedback E AGN feedback ≃ ηM BH c 2 yields an extra heating of ≃0.5 - 17.0 keV per particle, which is sufficient to explain the central entropy excess. In most cases, the AGN contribution can compensate the radiative loss of the X-ray gas within the cooling radius ( ≃0.002 - 2.2 keV per particle), and apparently exceeds the energy required to cause the scaling relations to deviate from the self-similar predictions ( ≃0.2 - 1.0 keV per particle). In contrast to the AGN feedback, the extra heating provided by supernova explosions accounts for ≃0.01 - 0.08 keV per particle in groups and is almost negligible in clusters. Therefore, the observed correlation between ∆ K 0 and L K can be considered as direct evidence for AGN feedback in galaxy groups and clusters.

title: Integrated Sachs-Wolfe effect in a quintessence cosmological model: Including anisotropic stress of dark energy
abstract: In this paper, we investigate the integrated Sachs-Wolfe effect in the quintessence cold dark matter model with constant equation of state and constant speed of sound in dark energy rest frame, including dark energy perturbation and its anisotropic stress. Comparing with the {Lambda}CDM model, we find that the integrated Sachs-Wolfe (ISW)-power spectrums are affected by different background evolutions and dark energy perturbation. As we change the speed of sound from 1 to 0 in the quintessence cold dark matter model with given state parameters, it is found that the inclusion of dark energy anisotropic stress makes the variation of magnitude of the ISW source uncertain due to the anticorrelation between the speed of sound and the ratio of dark energy density perturbation contrast to dark matter density perturbation contrast in the ISW-source term. Thus, the magnitude of the ISW-source term is governed by the competition between the alterant multiple of (1+3/2xc-circumflex{sub s}{sup 2}) and that of {delta}{sub de}/{delta}{sub m} with the variation of c-circumflex{sub s}{sup 2}.