Analysis on the anisotropic flow of Pb-Pb collisions at 2.76 TeV

Abstract

Heavy-ion collisions are used to study the hot and dense matter that might have existed just after the Big Bang. This so called quark gluon plasma is one of the subjects that is studied in sub-atomic particle physics. The purpose of this research is to study the anisotropic flow. The anisotropic flow is an observable that can give more information about the properties of the quark gluon plasma. In this research data collected in November and December by the ALICE detector during the Pb-Pb run is used. The calculations have been done for a transverse momentum range 0.2 < pT < 6 GeV/c, within the pseudorapidity interval (-0.8,0.8). The method used in this analysis is the two particle correlation technique. In this research the charged particle elliptic and triangular flow will be discussed in great detail, as will their systematic errors. Some background information is also provided in the first chapter.