Abstract: We study the strange vector meson (K*, (K) over bar*) dynamics in relativistic heavy-ion collisions based on the microscopic parton-hadron-string dynamics (PHSD) transport approach which incorporates partonic and hadronic degrees of freedom, a phase transition from hadronic to partonic matter-quark-gluon-plasma (QGP)-and a dynamical hadronization of quarks and antiquarks as well as final hadronic interactions. We investigate the role of in-medium effects on the K*, (K) over bar* meson dynamics by employing Breit-Wigner spectral functions for the K* with self-energies obtained from a self-consistent coupled-channelG-matrix approach. Furthermore, we confront the PHSD calculations with experimental data for p + p, Cu + Cu, and Au + Au collisions at energies up to root s(NN) = 200 GeV. Our analysis shows that, at relativistic energies, most of the final K* (observed experimentally) are produced during the late hadronic phase, dominantly by the K + pi -> K* channel, such that the fraction of the K* from the QGP is small and can hardly be reconstructed from the final observables. The influence of the in-medium effects on the K* dynamics at energies typical of the BNL Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider is rather modest due to their dominant production at low baryon densities (but high meson densities); however, it increases with decreasing beam energy. Moreover, we find that the additional cut on the invariant-mass region of the K* further influences the shape and the height of the final spectra. This imposes severe constraints on the interpretation of the experimental results.

Abstract: Two-particle pseudorapidity correlations are measured in root s(NN) = 2.76 TeV Pb + Pb, root s(NN) = 5.02 TeV p+Pb, and root s = 13 TeV pp collisions at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), with total integrated luminosities of approximately 7 μb(-1), 28 nb(-1), and 65 nb(-1), respectively. The correlation function CN(eta(1),eta(2))is measured as a function of event multiplicity using charged particles in the pseudorapidity range |eta| < 2.4. The correlation function contains a significant short-range component, which is estimated and subtracted. After removal of the short-range component, the shape of the correlation function is described approximately by 1 + < a(1)(2)>(1/2) eta(1) eta(2) in all collision systems over the full multiplicity range. The values of < a(1)(2)>(1/2) are consistent for the opposite-charge pairs and same-charge pairs, and for the three collision systems at similar multiplicity. The values of < a(1)(2)>(1/2) and the magnitude of the short-range component both follow a power-law dependence on the event multiplicity. The short-range component in p + Pb collisions, after symmetrizing the proton and lead directions, is found to be smaller at a given eta than in pp collisions with comparable multiplicity.

Abstract: Correlations between the elliptic or triangular flow coefficients v(m) (m = 2 or 3) and other flow harmonics v(n) (n = 2 to 5) are measured using root S-NN = 2.76 TeV Pb + Pb collision data collected in 2010 by the ATLAS experiment at the LHC, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 7 μb(-1). The v(m)-v(n) correlations aremeasured in midrapidity as a function of centrality, and, for events within the same centrality interval, as a function of event ellipticity or triangularity defined in a forward rapidity region. For events within the same centrality interval, v(3) is found to be anticorrelated with v(2) and this anticorrelation is consistent with similar anticorrelations between the corresponding eccentricities, epsilon(2) and epsilon(3). However, it is observed that v(4) increases strongly with v(2), and v(5) increases strongly with both v(2) and v(3). The trend and strength of the v(m) -v(n) correlations for n = 4 and 5 are found to disagree with epsilon(m)-epsilon(n) correlations predicted by initial-geometry models. Instead, these correlations are found to be consistent with the combined effects of a linear contribution to v(n) and a nonlinear term that is a function of v(2)(2) or of v(2)v(3), as predicted by hydrodynamic models. A simple two-component fit is used to separate these two contributions. The extracted linear and nonlinear contributions to v(4) and v(5) are found to be consistent with previously measured event-plane correlations.

Abstract: The ATLAS Collaboration measures the inclusive production of Z bosons via their decays into electron and muon pairs in p + Pb collisions at root S-NN = 5.02 TeV at the Large Hadron Collider. The measurements are made using data corresponding to integrated luminosities of 29.4 and 28.1 nb(-1) for Z -> ee and Z -> μmu, respectively. The results from the two channels are consistent and combined to obtain a cross section times the Z -> ll branching ratio, integrated over the rapidity region vertical bar y(Z)*vertical bar < 3.5, of 139.8 +/- 4.8 (statistical) +/- 6.2 (systematic) +/- 3.8 (luminosity) nb. Differential cross sections are presented as functions of the Z boson rapidity and transverse momentum and compared with models based on parton distributions both with and without nuclear corrections. The centrality dependence of Z boson production in p + Pb collisions is measured and analyzed within the framework of a standard Glauber model and the model's extension for fluctuations of the underlying nucleon-nucleon scattering cross section.

Abstract: A measurement of event-plane correlations involving two or three event planes of different order is presented as a function of centrality for 7 μb(-1) Pb + Pb collision data at v root s(NN) = 2.76 TeV, recorded by the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider. Fourteen correlators are measured using a standard event-plane method and a scalar-product method, and the latter method is found to give a systematically larger correlation signal. Several different trends in the centrality dependence of these correlators are observed. These trends are not reproduced by predictions based on the Glauber model, which includes only the correlations from the collision geometry in the initial state. Calculations that include the final-state collective dynamics are able to describe qualitatively, and in some cases also quantitatively, the centrality dependence of the measured correlators. These observations suggest that both the fluctuations in the initial geometry and the nonlinear mixing between different harmonics in the final state are important for creating these correlations in momentum space.