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Physics
Letters
B
www.elsevier.com/locate/physletb
Freeze-out
radii
extracted
from
three-pion
cumulants
in
pp,
p–Pb
and Pb–Pb
collisions
at
the
LHC
.
ALICE
Collaboration
a
r
t
i
c
l
e
i
n
f
o
a
b
s
t
r
a
c
t
Articlehistory:
Received17April2014
Receivedinrevisedform6October2014 Accepted12October2014
Availableonline18October2014 Editor: L.Rolandi
In high-energy collisions,the spatio-temporalsizeof theparticleproduction regioncanbe measured using the Bose–Einstein correlations of identical bosons at low relative momentum. The source radii are typically extracted using two-pion correlations, and characterize the system at the last stageofinteraction, calledkinetic freeze-out.Inlow-multiplicitycollisions, unlikeinhigh-multiplicity collisions, two-pion correlations are substantially altered by background correlations, e.g. mini-jets. Such correlations can be suppressed using three-pion cumulant correlations. We present the first measurementsofthesizeofthesystematfreeze-outextractedfromthree-pioncumulantcorrelationsin pp,p–PbandPb–PbcollisionsattheLHCwithALICE.Atsimilarmultiplicity,theinvariantradiiextracted in p–Pbcollisions are found to be5–15% largerthanthose inpp, while those inPb–Pb are 35–55% largerthanthoseinp–Pb.Ourmeasurements disfavormodelswhichincorporatesubstantiallystronger collectiveexpansioninp–Pbascomparedtoppcollisionsatsimilarmultiplicity.
©2014TheAuthors.PublishedbyElsevierB.V.ThisisanopenaccessarticleundertheCCBYlicense (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/).FundedbySCOAP3.
1. Introduction
Therole of initial andfinal-stateeffects ininterpreting differ-encesbetweenPb–Pbandppcollisionsisexpectedtobeclarified with p–Pb collisions [1]. However, the results obtained from p– Pbcollisions at
√
sNN=
5.
02 TeV[2–10]havenotbeenconclusive sincetheycanbeexplainedassumingeitherahydrodynamicphase duringthe evolutionofthesystem[11–13] ortheformationofa ColorGlassCondensate (CGC)intheinitialstate[14,15].Asin Pb–Pb collisions,the presence ofa hydrodynamic phase in high-multiplicity p–Pb collisions is expected to lead to a fac-torof1
.
5–2 largerfreeze-outradiithaninppcollisionsatsimilar multiplicity[16].Incontrast,aCGCinitialstatemodel(IP-Glasma), withoutahydrodynamicphase,predictssimilarfreeze-outradiiin p–Pbandppcollisions[17].Ameasurementofthefreeze-outradii inthetwosystemswillthusleadtoadditionalexperimental con-straintsontheinterpretationofthep–Pbdata.Theextractionoffreeze-outradiicanbeachievedusing identi-calbosoncorrelationsatlowrelativemomentum,whichare dom-inated by quantum statistics (QS) and final-state Coulomb and strong interactions (FSIs). Both FSIs and QS correlations encode information about the femtoscopic space–time structure of the particleemitting source at kinetic freeze-out [18–20]. The calcu-lationofFSIcorrelationsallowsfortheisolationofQScorrelations.
E-mailaddress:alice-publications@cern.ch.
Typically, two-pion QS correlationsare used to extract the char-acteristic radius ofthe source [21–27].However, higher-order QS correlations can be used as well [28–32]. The novel features of higher-orderQScorrelationsareextractedusingthecumulantfor whichalllowerordercorrelationsareremoved[33,34].The maxi-mumofthethree-pioncumulantQScorrelationisafactoroftwo largerthanfortwo-pionQScorrelations[33–36].Inadditiontothe increasedsignal, three-pion cumulants alsoremove contributions from two-particle background correlations unrelated to QS (e.g. frommini-jets [24,26]). The combinedeffect ofan increased sig-nalanddecreasedbackgroundisadvantageousinlowmultiplicity systemswhereasubstantialbackgroundexists.
In this Letter, we present measurements of freeze-out radii extracted using three-pion cumulant QS correlations. The invari-antradii areextractedinintervalsofmultiplicity andtriplet mo-mentum in pp (
√
s=
7 TeV), p–Pb (√
sNN=
5.
02 TeV) and Pb– Pb (√
sNN=
2.
76 TeV) which allows fora comparisonofthe var-ious systems. The radii extracted fromthree-pion cumulants are alsocomparedtothosefromtwo-pioncorrelations.The Letter is organized into 5 remaining sections. Section 2
explainstheexperimentalsetupandeventselection.Section3 de-scribes the identification of pions, as well as the measurement oftheeventmultiplicity.Section4explainsthethree-pion cumu-lant analysistechniqueused toextractthe sourceradii.Section 5
presentsthemeasuredsourceradii.Finally,Section 6summarizes theresultsreportedintheLetter.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.physletb.2014.10.034
0370-2693/©2014TheAuthors.PublishedbyElsevierB.V.ThisisanopenaccessarticleundertheCCBYlicense(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/).Fundedby SCOAP3.
2. Experimentalsetupandeventselection
Datafrompp, p–Pb,andPb–Pb collisions attheLHCrecorded withALICE[37]areanalyzed.Thedataforppcollisionsweretaken duringthe 2010pp runat
√
s=
7 TeV,forp–Pbcollisions during the2013run at√
sNN=
5.
02 TeV,andforPb–Pbduring the2010 and 2011 runs at√
sNN=
2.
76 TeV. For p–Pb, the proton beam energy was 4 TeV while for the lead beam it was 1.58 TeV per nucleon.Thus,thenucleon–nucleoncenter-of-masssystemmoved with respect to the ALICE laboratory system with a rapidity of−
0.
465, i.e. in the direction of the proton beam. The pseudora-pidityinthelaboratorysystemisdenotedwithη
throughoutthis Letter, which for the pp and Pb–Pb systems coincides with the pseudorapidityinthecenter-of-masssystem.Thetriggerconditionsareslightlydifferentforeachofthethree collision systems. Forpp collisions, the VZERO detectors [38] lo-catedintheforwardandbackwardregionsofthedetector,aswell astheSiliconPixelDetector(SPD)atmid-rapidityareusedtoform a minimum-bias trigger by requiringat least one hit in the SPD oreither ofthe VZEROdetectors [39]. ForPb–Pb andp–Pb colli-sions,thetriggerisformedbyrequiringsimultaneoushitsinboth VZEROdetectors. Inaddition, high-multiplicitytriggers inpp and p–PbcollisionsbasedontheSPDareused.Twoadditionaltriggers inPb–PbareusedbasedontheVZEROsignalamplitudewhich en-hanced the statistics forcentral and semi-central collisions [38]. Approximately 164,115, and 52 million events are used for pp, p–Pb, and Pb–Pb collisions, respectively. For pp and p–Pb, the highmultiplicitytriggers accountforlessthan3% ofthecollected events.ForPb–Pb,thecentralandsemi-centraltriggersaccountfor about40% and52% ofthecollectedevents,respectively.
TheInner TrackingSystem(ITS) andTimeProjection Chamber (TPC) located atmid-rapidity are used for particle tracking [40]. TheITSconsistsof6layers ofsilicondetectors:siliconpixel (lay-ers1, 2), silicon drift (layers 3,4), and siliconstrip (layers5, 6) detectors.The ITSprovideshighspatial resolutionof theprimary vertex. The TPC alone is used formomentum and charge deter-minationofparticles via their curvatureinthe0.5 Tlongitudinal magneticfield,sinceclustersharingwithintheITScausesa small momentumbiasforparticlepairsatlowrelativemomentum.
TheTPCadditionallyprovidesparticleidentificationcapabilities through the specific ionization energyloss (dE
/
dx). The Time Of Flight(TOF)detectorisalsousedtoselectparticlesathigher mo-menta. To ensure uniformtracking, the z-coordinate (beam-axis) oftheprimaryvertexisrequiredtobewithinadistanceof10 cm fromthedetectorcenter.Eventswithlessthanthreereconstructed chargedpionsare rejected,whichremovesabout25%and10% of thelow-multiplicityeventsinppandp–Pb,respectively.3. Trackselectionandmultiplicityintervals
Trackswith total momentumless than1.0 GeV
/
c are usedto ensuregoodparticleidentification.Wealsorequiretransverse mo-mentum pT>
0.
16 GeV/
c,andpseudorapidity|
η
| <
0.
8.Toensure good momentum resolutiona minimum of 70tracking points in theTPCarerequired.Chargedpionsareselectediftheyarewithin 2standarddeviations (σ
) oftheexpectedpiondE/
dx value[41]. For momenta greater than 0.6 GeV/
c, high purity is maintained with TOF by selecting particles within 2σ
of the expected pion time-of-flight.Additionally,trackswhichare within2σ
ofthe ex-pectedkaonorprotondE/
dx ortime-of-flightvaluesarerejected. Theeffectsoftrackmergingandsplittingareminimizedbasedon the spatial separation of tracks in the TPC as described in [42]. Forthree-pioncorrelationsthepaircutsareappliedtoeachofthe threepairsinthetriplet.Similar as in [10], the analysis is performed in intervals of multiplicity which are defined by the reconstructed number of charged pions, Nrec
pions, in the above-mentioned kinematic range. Foreachmultiplicity interval,thecorrespondingmeanacceptance andefficiencycorrected valueofthetotalcharged-pion multiplic-ity,
Npions,andthetotalcharged-particle multiplicity,Nch,are determined using detector simulations with PYTHIA [43], DPM-JET [44],andHIJING [45] eventgenerators. Thesystematic uncer-tainty ofNch and Npionsis determined by comparing PYTHIA to PHOJET (pp) [46], DPMJET to HIJING (p–Pb), and HIJING to AMPT (Pb–Pb)[47],andamountstoabout5%.Themultiplicity in-tervals,Npions,Nch,aswell astheaveragecentralityin Pb–Pb andfractionalcrosssectionsinpp andp–PbaregiveninTable 1
. ThecollisioncentralityinPb–Pbisdeterminedusingthe charged-particle multiplicity in the VZERO detectors [38]. As mentioned above,thecenter-of-massreferenceframeforp–Pbcollisionsdoes not coincidewiththelaboratory frame,whereNchismeasured. However, fromstudiesusingDPMJETandHIJING atthegenerator level,thedifferencetoNchmeasuredinthecenter-of-massis ex-pectedtobesmallerthan3%.4. Analysistechnique
To extract the source radii,one can measuretwo- and three-particlecorrelation functionsasinRef. [42].Thetwo-particle cor-relationfunction
C2
(
p1,
p2)
=
α
2N2
(
p1,
p2)
N1(
p1)
N1(
p2)
(1)
is constructedusing themomenta pi,andis definedastheratio
oftheinclusivetwo-particlespectrum overtheproduct ofthe in-clusivesingle-particlespectra.BothareprojectedontotheLorentz invariant relative momentum q
=
−(
p1−
p2)
μ(
p1−
p2)
μ andthe average piontransverse momentum kT
= |
pT,1+
pT,2|/
2. The numerator of the correlation function is formed by all pairs of particlesfromthesameevent.Thedenominatorisformedby tak-ing one particle from one event and the second particle from another eventwithin the samemultiplicity interval. The normal-izationfactor,α
2,isdeterminedsuchthatthecorrelationfunction equals unity in a certain interval of relative momentum q. The location of the interval is sufficientlyabove the dominant region ofQS+
FSIcorrelationsandsufficiently narrowtoavoidthe influ-enceofnon-femtoscopiccorrelationsatlargerelativemomentum. As thewidthofQS+
FSIcorrelationsisdifferentinallthree colli-sionsystems,ourchoiceforthenormalizationintervaldependson themultiplicityinterval.ForPb–Pb,thenormalizationintervalsare 0.
15<
q<
0.
175 GeV/
c forNpionsrec≥
400 and0.
3<
q<
0.
35 GeV/
cfor Npionsrec
<
400. For pp and p–Pb the normalization interval is 1.
0<
q<
1.
2 GeV/
c.Following [48,49],the two-particle QS distributions, NQS2 , and correlations, C2QS,areextractedfromthemeasureddistributionsin intervalsofkTassuming C2
(
q)
=
N
1−
fc2+
fc2K2(
q)
C2QS(
q)
B(
q).
(2)The parameter fc2 characterizes the combined dilution effect of weak decays and long-lived resonance decays in the “core/halo” picture [50,51].In Pb–Pb,it was estimatedtobe 0
.
7±
0.
05 with mixed-chargetwo-pioncorrelations[42].Thesameprocedure per-formed in pp and p–Pb data results in compatible values. The FSI correlation is given by K2(
q)
, which includes Coulomb and strong interactions. For low multiplicities (Nrecpions<
150), K2(
q)
is calculated iteratively using the Fourier transform of the FSI corrected correlation functions.Forhighermultiplicities (Nrecpions≥
150), K2(
q)
iscalculatedasinRef.[42]usingtheTHERMINATOR2Table 1
Multiplicityintervalsasdeterminedbythereconstructednumberofchargedpions,Nrec
pions,withallofthetrackselectioncuts (p<1.0 GeV/c,pT>0.16 GeV/c,|η|<0.8).
Npionsstandsfortheacceptancecorrectedaveragenumberofchargedpions,andNchforcorrespondingacceptancecorrectednumberofchargedparticlesinthesame
kinematicrange.TheuncertaintiesonNchareabout5%.TheRMSwidthoftheNchdistributionineachintervalrangesfrom10%to35%forthehighestandlowest
multiplicityintervals,respectively.TheaveragecentralityforPb–Pbinpercentiles,aswellasthefractionalcross-sectionsofthemultiplicityintervalsforp–Pbandppare alsogiven.TheRMSwidthsforthecentralitiesrangefromabout2 to4 percentilesforcentralandperipheralcollisions,respectively.
Nrec
pions Pb–Pb data p–Pb data pp data
Cent Npions Nch Fraction Npions Nch Fraction Npions Nch
[3,5) – – – 0.10 – – 0.23 4.0 4.6 [5,10) – – – 0.20 8.5 9.8 0.31 7.7 8.6 [10,15) – – – 0.18 15 17 0.12 13 15 [15,20) – – – 0.14 20 23 0.05 18 20 [20,30) 77% 26 36 0.17 29 33 0.03 24 27 [30,40) 73% 37 50 0.07 40 45 0.003 34 37 [40,50) 70% 49 64 0.03 51 57 1×10−4 44 47 [50,70) 66% 66 84 0.01 63 71 – – – [70,100) 60% 95 118 – – – – – – [100,150) 53% 142 172 – – – – – – [150,200) 48% 213 253 – – – – – – [200,260) 43% 276 326 – – – – – – [260,320) 38% 343 403 – – – – – – [320,400) 33% 426 498 – – – – – – [400,500) 28% 534 622 – – – – – – [500,600) 22% 654 760 – – – – – – [600,700) 18% 777 901 – – – – – – [700,850) 13% 931 1076 – – – – – – [850,1050) 7.4% 1225 1413 – – – – – – [1050,2000) 2.6% 1590 1830 – – – – – –
model [52,53]. B
(
q)
represents the non-femtoscopic background correlation,andis takenfromPYTHIAandDPMJETforppandp– Pb, respectively[24,26]. Itis set equalto unityfor Pb–Pb,where nosignificantbackgroundisexpected.InEq.(2),N
istheresidual normalizationofthefitwhichtypicallydiffersfromunityby0.01.Thesame-chargetwo-pionQScorrelationcan beparametrized byanexponential
CQS2
(
q)
=
1+ λ
e−Rinvq,
(3)aswellasbyaGaussianorEdgeworthexpansion
C2QS
(
q)
=
1+ λ
Ew2(
Rinvq)
e−R 2 invq2 (4) Ew(
Rinvq)
=
1+
∞ n=3κ
n n!(
√
2)
nHn(
Rinvq),
(5)whereEw
(
Rinvq)
characterizes deviationsfromGaussian behavior, Hn are theHermitepolynomials, andκ
n aretheEdgeworthcoef-ficients[54].Thefirsttwo relevantEdgeworthcoefficients (
κ
3,
κ
4) arefoundtobesufficienttodescribethenon-Gaussian featuresat lowrelativemomentum.TheGaussianfunctionalformisobtained withEw=
1 (κ
n=
0)inEq.(4).Theparameterλ
characterizes anapparentsuppressionfromanincorrectlyassumedfunctionalform ofC2QS andthe suppressiondue to possiblepion coherence [55]. The parameter Rinv is the characteristic radius fromtwo-particle correlationsevaluatedinthepair-restframe.Theeffectiveintercept parameterfortheEdgeworthfitisgivenby
λ
e= λ
E2w(
0)
[54].The effectiveinterceptcanbebelowthechaoticlimitof 1.0forpartially coherentemission[36,42,55].Theextractedeffectiveintercept pa-rameter is found to strongly depend on the assumed functional formof C2QS.Thethree-particlecorrelationfunction
C3
(
p1,
p2,
p3)
=
α
3N3
(
p1,
p2,
p3)
N1(
p1)
N1(
p2)
N1(
p3)
(6)
is defined as the ratio of the inclusive three-particle spectrum over theproduct of the inclusivesingle-particle spectra.In anal-ogytothe two-pioncase, it isprojected ontothe Lorentz invari-ant Q3
=
q212
+
q231+
q223 and the average pion transversemo-mentum KT,3
=
|pT,1+p3T,2+pT,3|.The numeratorof C3 isformedby taking three particles from the same event. The denominator is formedbytakingeachofthethreeparticlesfromdifferentevents. Thenormalizationfactor,α
3,isdetermined suchthatthe correla-tionfunctionequalsunityintheintervalofQ3whereeachpairqi jliesinthesameintervalgivenbeforefortwo-pioncorrelations. The extraction of the full three-pion QS distribution, NQS3 , in intervalsofKT,3 isdoneasinRef.[42]bymeasuring
N3
(
p1,
p2,
p3)
=
f1N1(
p1)
N1(
p2)
N1(
p3)
+
f2 N2(
p1,
p2)
N1(
p3)
+
N2(
p3,
p1)
N1(
p2)
+
N2(
p2,
p3)
N1(
p1)
+
f3K3(
q12,
q31,
q23)
NQS3(
p1,
p2,
p3),
(7) wherethefractions f1= (
1−
fc)
3+
3 fc(
1−
fc)
2−
3(
1−
fc)(
1−
fc2
)
= −
0.
08, f2=
1−
fc=
0.
16, and f3=
fc3=
0.
59 usingfc2
=
0.
7 as in the two-pion case. The term N2(
pi,
pj)
N1(
pk)
isformed by taking two particles from the same event and the third particle from a mixed event. All three-particle distribu-tions are normalized to each other in the same way as for
α
3. K3(
q12,
q31,
q23)
denotes the three-pion FSI correlation, which in the generalized Riverside (GRS) approach [42,56,57] is approx-imated by K2(
q12)
K2(
q31)
K2(
q23)
. It was found to describe theπ
±π
±π
∓three-bodyFSIcorrelationtothefewpercentlevel[42]. FromEq.(7)onecanextract NQS3 andconstructthethree-pionQS cumulantcorrelation c3(
p1,
p2,
p3)
=
N
3 1+
2N1(
p1)
N1(
p2)
N1(
p3)
−
N2QS(
p1,
p2)
N1(
p3)
−
N2QS(
p3,
p1)
N1(
p2)
−
NQS2(
p2,
p3)
N1(
p1)
+
N3QS(
p1,
p2,
p3)
/
N1(
p1)
N1(
p2)
N1(
p3)
,
(8) where NQS2(
pi,
pj)
N1(
pk)
= [
N2(
pi,
pj)
N1(
pk)
−
N1(
pi)
N1(
pj)
×
N1
(
pk)(
1−
fc2)
]/(
fc2K2)
. In Eq. (8), all two-pion QS correlations are explicitly subtracted [34]. The QS cumulant inthis form hasFig. 1. DemonstrationoftheremovaloftheK0
s decayfromthree-pioncumulants.
Mixed-chargethree-pioncorrelationsareprojectedagainsttherelativemomentum ofamixed-chargepair(q±∓31 ).TheKs0decayintoaπ++π−pairisvisibleas
ex-pectedaround0.4GeV/c.TheFSIenhancementofthemixed-chargepair“31”is alsovisibleatlowq±∓31 .FSIcorrectionsarenotapplied.Systematicuncertaintiesare
shownbyshadedboxes.
FSIsremovedbeforeitsconstruction.
N
3 istheresidual normaliza-tionofthefitwhichtypicallydiffersfromunityby0.02.The three-pion same-charge cumulant correlations are then projected onto 3D pair relative momenta and fit with an expo-nential
c3
(
q12,
q31,
q23)
=
1+ λ
3e−Rinv,3(q12+q31+q23)/2,
(9) aswellasaGaussianandanEdgeworthexpansion[54]c3
(
q12,
q31,
q23)
=
1+ λ
3Ew(
Rinv,3q12)
Ew(
Rinv,3q31)
×
Ew(
Rinv,3q23)
e−R2
inv,3Q32/2
.
(10)Rinv,3and
λ
3aretheinvariantradiusandinterceptparameters ex-tractedfromthree-pioncumulantcorrelations,respectively.The ef-fectiveinterceptparameterfortheEdgeworthfitisλ
e,3= λ
3E3w(
0)
. Foranexactfunctionalformofc3,λ
e,3reachesamaximumof 2.0 for fully chaotic pion emission. Deviations below and above 2.0 canfurtherbecausedbyincorrectrepresentationsofc3,e.g. Gaus-sian.Eq.(10)neglectstheeffectofthethree-pionphase[33]which was foundtobe consistentwithzeroforPb–Pbcentral and mid-centralcollisions[42]
.Wenotethattheextractedradiifrom two-andthree-pioncorrelationsneednotexactlyagree,e.g.inthecase ofcoherentemission[58].Themeasuredcorrelationfunctionsneedtobecorrectedfor fi-nitetrackmomentumresolutionoftheTPCwhichcausesa slight broadeningof the correlation functionsandleads toa slight de-crease of the extracted radii. PYTHIA (pp), DPMJET (p–Pb) and HIJING (Pb–Pb)simulationsareusedtoestimate theeffectonthe fit parameters. After the correction, both fit parameters increase by about 2% (5%) for the lowest (highest) multiplicity interval. Therelative systematicuncertaintyofthiscorrectionis conserva-tively taken to be 1%. The pion purity is estimated to be about 96%. Muonsare found to be the dominantsource of contamina-tion, forwhich we apply corrections to the correlation functions as described in Ref. [42]. The correction typically increases the radius (intercept) fitparameters by less than1% (5%). The corre-spondingsystematicuncertaintyisincludedinthe comparisonof themixed-chargedcorrelationwithunity (seebelow).
5. Results
The absenceoftwo-particle correlationsin thethree-pion cu-mulantcanbedemonstratedvia theremovalofknowntwo-body effects such as the decay of K0
s into a
π
++
π
− pair (Fig. 1).The mixed-charge three-pion correlation function (C±±∓3 ) pro-jectedontotheinvariantrelativemomentumofoneofthe mixed-chargepairsinthetripletexhibitsthe K0
s peakasexpectedaround
q±∓
=
0.
4 GeV/
c,whileitisremovedinthecumulant.In
Fig. 2
wepresentthree-pioncorrelationfunctionsfor same-charge (top panels) andmixed-charge (bottom panels) tripletsin pp, p–Pb,andPb–Pb collision systemsinthree sample multiplic-ity intervals. For same-charge triplets, the three-pion cumulant QS correlation (c±±±3 ) isclearly visible. Formixed-chargetriplets the three-pion cumulant correlation function (c±±∓3 ) is consis-tent with unity, as expected when FSIs are removed. Gaussian, Edgeworth, and exponential fits are performed in three dimen-sions (q12,
q31,
q23).ConcerningEdgeworthfits,differentvaluesof theκ
coefficients correspond to different spatial freeze-out pro-files. In order to make a meaningful comparison of the charac-teristicradii acrossallmultiplicity intervalsandcollisionsystems, wefixκ
3=
0.
1 andκ
4=
0.
5.Thevaluesaredeterminedfromthe average offree fitsto c±±±3 forall multiplicity intervals, KT,3 in-tervals andsystems. The RMS of bothκ
3 andκ
4 distributions is 0.1. Thechosenκ
coefficientsproduceasharpercorrelation func-tion which corresponds to larger tails in the source distribution. AlsoshowninFig. 2
are modelcalculationsofc3 inPYTHIA(pp), DPMJET(p–Pb)andHIJING(Pb–Pb),whichdonotcontainQS+
FSI correlations and demonstrate that three-pion cumulants, in con-trasttotwo-pioncorrelations[24,26],donotcontainasignificant non-femtoscopicbackground,evenforlowmultiplicities.ThesystematicuncertaintiesonC3areconservativelyestimated to be 1% by comparing
π
+ toπ
− correlation functions and by tightening the track merging and splitting cuts. The systematic uncertainty onc±±±3 isestimatedby the residualcorrelation ob-served withc±±∓3 relativeto unity.The residualcorrelationleads to a 4% uncertainty onλ
e,3 while having a negligible effect on Rinv,3.Theuncertaintyon fcleadstoanadditional10% uncertainty onc3−
1 andλ
e,3.Wealsoinvestigatedtheeffectofsetting fc=
1 andthus f1=
0,
f2=
0,
f3=
1.
0 inEq.(7)andfoundanegligible effectonRinv,3,whilesignificantlyreducingλ
e,3asexpectedwhen thedilutionisnotadequatelytakenintoaccount.Figs. 3(a) and3(b) show the three-pion Gaussian fit parame-ters forlow andhigh KT,3 intervals, respectively. The
kTvalues forlow (high)kT are0.25 (0.43)GeV/
c.TheresultingpairkT dis-tributions in the triplet KT,3 intervals have RMS widths for the low (high) KT,3 of 0.
12 (0.
14) in pp and p–Pb and 0.
04 (0.
09) GeV/
c inPb–Pbcollisions. ThekTvaluesforlow (high) KT,3 are 0.24 (0.39)GeV/
c.Wealsoshowthefitparametersextractedfrom two-pioncorrelationsinordertocomparetothoseextractedfrom three-pioncumulants.ForPb–Pb,theGaussianradiiextractedfrom three-pioncorrelationsareabout10%smallerthanthoseextracted fromtwo-pioncorrelations,whichmaybeduetothenon-Gaussian featuresofthecorrelationfunction.Aclearsuppressionbelowthe chaotic limit isobserved fortheeffectiveinterceptparameters in all multiplicity intervals.The suppressionmaybe causedby non-Gaussian features of thecorrelation function andalso by a finite coherentcomponentofpionemission[36,42,55].The systematic uncertainties on the fit parameters are domi-nated by fit-range variations, especially in the case of Gaussian fits to non-Gaussian correlation functions. The chosen fit range forc3 variessmoothly betweenQ3
=
0.
5 and0.
1 GeV/
c fromthe lowest multiplicity ppto thehighestmultiplicity Pb–Pbintervals. For C2, the fit ranges are chosen to be√
2 times narrower. The characteristic widthof Gaussian three-pion cumulantQS correla-tions projected against Q3 is a factorof
√
2 times that of Gaus-sian two-pion QS correlations projected against q [35,36]. As a variation we change the upper bound of the fit range by
±
30% forthree-pioncorrelationsandtwo-pioncorrelationsinPb–Pb forNrec
Fig. 2. Three-pioncorrelationfunctionsversusQ3for0.16<KT,3<0.3 GeV/c inpp,p–PbandPb–PbcollisiondatacomparedtoPYTHIA,DPMJETandHIJINGgenerator-level
calculations.Toppanelsareforsame-chargetriplets,whilebottompanelsareformixed-chargetriplets.Twopointsatlow Q3 withlargestatisticaluncertaintiesarenot
shownforthepp same-chargecorrelationfunction.
Fig. 3. Two- andthree-pionGaussianfitparametersversusNchinpp,p–PbandPb–PbcollisionsystemsforlowandhighkTand KT,3 intervals.Toppanelsshowthe
Gaussianradii RG
inv andRGinv,3 andbottompanelsshowtheeffectiveGaussianinterceptparametersλGe andλGe,3.Thesystematicuncertaintiesaredominatedbyfitrange
variationsandareshownbybounding/dashedlinesandshadedboxesfortwo- andthree-particleparameters,respectively.Thedashedanddash-dottedlinesrepresentthe chaoticlimitsforλGe andλGe,3,respectively.
rangeisincreased tomatchthatinp–Pb(i.e.0.13to0.27 GeV
/
c).Forppandp–Pb,owingtothelargerbackgroundpresentfor two-pioncorrelations,weextendthefitrangetoq
=
1.
2 GeV/
c forthe upper variation. The non-femtoscopic background in Eq. (2) has a non-negligible effecton the extractedradii in the extended fitrange. The resulting systematic uncertainties are fully correlated for three-pionfit parameters for each collision system, since the fit-rangevariationshavethesameeffectineachmultiplicity inter-val. The systematicuncertainties forthe two-pion fit parameters are largely correlated and are asymmetric due to the different
Fig. 4. Two- andthree-pionEdgeworthfitparametersversusNchinpp,p–PbandPb–PbcollisionsystemsforlowandhighkTand KT,3intervals.Toppanelsshowthe
Edgeworthradii REw
inv and R
Ew
inv,3 andbottompanelsshowtheeffectiveinterceptparametersλ
Ew
e andλEe,w3.Asdescribedinthetext,κ3and κ4 arefixedto0.1and0.5,
respectively.SamedetailsasforFig. 3.
Fig. 5. Two- andthree-pionexponential fitparametersversusNchinpp,p–PbandPb–PbcollisionsystemsforlowandhighkTand KT,3intervals.Toppanelsshowthe
exponential radiiRExpinv andRExpinv,3scaleddownby√πandbottompanelsshowtheeffectiveinterceptparametersλExpe andλeExp,3.SamedetailsasforFig. 3.
fit-range variations. We note that the radii in pp collisions at
√
s
=
7 TeV from our previous two-pion measurement [26] are about25% smallerthanthecentralvaluesextractedinthis analy-sisalthoughcompatiblewithin systematicuncertainties.Thelarge difference is attributed to the narrower fit range in this analy-sis. In [24,26] the chosen Gaussian fit range was q<
1.
4 GeV/
c,whilehereitisq
<
0.
35 GeV/
c forthelowestmultiplicityinterval. Thenarrowerfitrangeischosenbasedonobservationsmadewith three-pioncumulantsforwhichtwo-pionbackgroundcorrelations are removed.It isobserved inFig. 2 thateven forlowmultiplic-ities, thedominantQS correlation iswell below Q3
=
0.
5 GeV/
c. The presence of the non-femtoscopic backgrounds can also bias theradiifromtwo-pioncorrelationsinwidefitrangesandis sup-pressedwiththree-pioncumulantcorrelations.To further address the non-Gaussian features of the correla-tion functions, we also extract the fit parameters from an Edge-worth andexponentialparametrizationasshownin
Figs. 4 and
5. We observethat theEdgeworth andexponential radii are signifi-cantlylargerthantheGaussianradii.However,theyshouldnotbe directly compared astheycorrespond todifferentsource profiles.GaussianradiicorrespondtothestandarddeviationofaGaussian sourceprofilewhereasexponentialradiicorrespondtotheFWHM ofa Cauchy source. The Edgeworth radii are model independent andaredefinedasthe2ndcumulantofthemeasured correlation function.Note that the exponential radii have been scaled down by
√
π
as is often done to compare Gaussian and exponential radii [23]. Compared to the Gaussian radii, the two- and three-pionradii are in much better agreement for the Edgeworth and exponentialfits.Thissuggeststhat thediscrepancybetween two-andthree-pionGaussian radiiareindeedcausedby non-Gaussian features of the correlation function. Concerning the effective in-tercepts, we observe a substantial increase as compared to the Gaussiancase.Thequalities ofthe Gaussian, Edgeworth,andexponential fits forthree-pioncumulantcorrelationsvarydependingonthe multi-plicityinterval.The
χ
2/
NDF forthe3Dthree-pionGaussian, Edge-worth, andexponential fits in the highest multiplicity Pb–Pb in-tervalis8600/
1436,4450/
1436,and4030/
1436,respectively.Theχ
2/
NDF decreasessignificantly forlower multiplicity intervalsto about4170/7785 forperipheral Pb–Pb and 12400/
17305 for pp and p–Pb multiplicity intervals, for all fit types. The Edgeworthχ
2/
NDF is a few percent smaller than for Gaussian fits in low multiplicity intervals. The exponentialχ
2/
NDF is a few percent smallerthanforEdgeworthfitsinlowmultiplicityintervals.Due to the asymmetry of the p–Pb colliding system, the ex-tractedfitparametersin
−
0.
8<
η
<
−
0.
4 and0.
4<
η
<
0.
8 pseu-dorapidityintervalsarecompared.Theradiiandtheeffective inter-cept parameters inboth intervalsare consistent withinstatistical uncertainties.The extracted radii in each multiplicity interval and system correspond to different
Nch values. Tocompare the radii in pp and p–Pb at the same Nch value, we perform a linear fit to thepp three-pionEdgeworth radii asa function of Nch1/3. We then compare the extracted p–Pb three-pion Edgeworth radii to thevalueofthe ppfitevaluated atthesameNch.We findthat theEdgeworth radii in p–Pb are on average 10±
5% largerthan forppintheregionofoverlappingmultiplicity.Thecomparisonof Pb–Pbto p–Pbradii is done similarlywhere the fitis performed to p–Pb data and compared to the two-pion Pb–Pb Edgeworth radii. The Edgeworth radii in Pb–Pb are found to be on average 45±
10% larger thanforp–Pbintheregionofoverlapping multi-plicity.Theratiocomparisonasitisdoneexploitsthecancellation ofthelargelycorrelatedsystematicuncertainties.Tobeindependent oftheassumedfunctional formforc3,the same-chargethree-pioncumulantcorrelationfunctionsaredirectly compared between two collision systems at similar multiplicity.
Fig. 6(a)showsthat whilethe three-pioncorrelationfunctionsin ppandp–Pb collisionsaredifferent,theircharacteristicwidthsare similar. It is therefore the
λ
e,3 valueswhich differ the most be-tweenthetwosystems.Fig. 6
(b)showsthat thecorrelation func-tionsinp–PbandPb–Pb collisionsaregenerallyquitedifferent. 6. SummaryThree-pioncorrelationsofsame- andmixed-chargepionshave beenpresentedforpp (
√
s=
7 TeV),p–Pb (√
sNN=
5.
02 TeV)and Pb–Pb (√
sNN=
2.
76 TeV) collisions at the LHC, measured with ALICE. Freeze-outradii using Gaussian, Edgeworth,and exponen-tial fits have been extracted from the three-pion cumulant QS correlation and presented in intervals of multiplicity and triplet momentum.Comparedtotheradiifromtwo-pioncorrelations,the radiifromthree-pioncumulantcorrelationsarelesssusceptibleto non-femtoscopicbackgroundcorrelationsduetotheincreasedQS signalandtheremovaloftwo-pionbackgrounds.ThedeviationofGaussian fitsbelowthe observedcorrelations at low Q3 clearly demonstrates the importance of non-Gaussian features of the correlation functions. The effective intercept pa-rameters from Gaussian (exponential) fits are significantly below (above)thechaotic limits,whilethecorresponding Edgeworth ef-fectiveinterceptsaremuchclosertothechaoticlimit.
Atsimilarmultiplicity,theinvariantradiiextractedfrom Edge-worth fits in p–Pb collisions are found to be 5–15% larger than those in pp, while those in Pb–Pb are 35–55% larger than those in p–Pb. Hence, models which incorporate substantially stronger collective expansion in p–Pbthan pp collisions atsimilar multi-plicityare disfavored. The comparability of theextracted radii in pp and p–Pb collisions at similar multiplicity is consistent with expectationsfromCGCinitialconditions(IP-Glasma)withouta hy-drodynamicphase[17].Thesmallerradiiinp–Pbascompared to Pb–Pbcollisionsmaydemonstratetheimportanceofdifferent ini-tial conditionson thefinal-state,or indicatesignificant collective expansionalreadyinperipheralPb–Pbcollisions.
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank Richard Lednický, Máté Csanád, and TamásCsörg ˝ofornumeroushelpfuldiscussions.
The ALICE Collaboration would like to thank all its engineers andtechniciansfortheir invaluablecontributions tothe construc-tion of the experiment and the CERN accelerator teams for the outstandingperformanceoftheLHCcomplex.
The ALICECollaborationgratefullyacknowledges theresources andsupportprovidedby allGridcentresandtheWorldwide LHC ComputingGrid(WLCG)Collaboration.
The ALICE Collaboration acknowledges the following funding agencies fortheir supportin buildingandrunning theALICE de-tector: StateCommitteeofScience,World FederationofScientists (WFS) and Swiss Fonds Kidagan, Armenia, Conselho Nacional de DesenvolvimentoCientífico eTecnológico (CNPq),Financiadorade EstudoseProjetos(FINEP),FundaçãodeAmparoàPesquisado Es-tado de São Paulo (FAPESP);National NaturalScience Foundation of China (NSFC), the Chinese Ministry of Education (CMOE) and the Ministry of Science andTechnology of the People’s Republic of China (MSTC); Ministry of Education and Youth of the Czech Republic; Danish Natural Science Research Council, the Carlsberg FoundationandtheDanishNationalResearchFoundation;The Eu-ropean Research Council under the European Community’s Sev-enthFrameworkProgramme; HelsinkiInstituteofPhysicsandthe AcademyofFinland;FrenchCNRS-IN2P3,the‘RegionPaysdeLoire’, ‘RegionAlsace’,‘RegionAuvergne’andCEA,France;GermanBMBF and the Helmholtz Association; General Secretariat for Research andTechnology,MinistryofDevelopment,Greece;HungarianOTKA andNationalOfficeforResearchandTechnology(NKTH); Depart-ment ofAtomic Energy, Government of India andDepartment of Science and Technology, Ministry of Science andTechnology, In-dia;IstitutoNazionalediFisicaNucleare(INFN)andCentroFermi– MuseoStoricodellaFisicaeCentroStudieRicerche“EnricoFermi”, Italy; MEXT Grant-in-Aid forSpecially PromotedResearch, Japan; Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, Dubna; National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF); CONACYT, DGAPA, México; ALFA-EC andtheEPLANETProgram(EuropeanParticlePhysicsLatin Ameri-canNetwork);StichtingvoorFundamenteelOnderzoekderMaterie (FOM)andtheNederlandseOrganisatievoorWetenschappelijk On-derzoek (NWO), Netherlands; Research Council ofNorway (NFR); NationalScienceCentre,Poland;MinistryofNational Education/In-stitute forAtomic PhysicsandCNCS-UEFISCDI, Romania; Ministry ofEducationandScience ofRussianFederation, RussianAcademy ofSciences,RussianFederalAgencyofAtomicEnergy,Russian Fed-eralAgencyforScienceandInnovationsandTheRussian
Founda-Fig. 6. Comparisonsofsame-chargethree-pioncumulantcorrelationfunctionsatsimilarmultiplicityfor0.16<KT,3<0.3 GeV/c.ThreepointsatlowQ3withlargestatistical
uncertaintiesarenotshownintheleftpanel.
tionforBasicResearch;MinistryofEducationofSlovakia; Depart-mentofScienceandTechnology,RepublicofSouthAfrica;CIEMAT, EELA,MinisteriodeEconomíayCompetitividad(MINECO)ofSpain, XuntadeGalicia(ConselleríadeEducación),CEADEN;Cubaenergía, Cuba;andIAEA(InternationalAtomicEnergyAgency);Swedish Re-search Council (VR) and Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation (KAW); Ukraine Ministry of Education andScience; United King-domScienceandTechnologyFacilitiesCouncil(STFC);TheU.S. De-partmentofEnergy,theUnitedStatesNationalScienceFoundation, theStateofTexas,andtheStateofOhio.
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ALICECollaboration