Eur. Phys. J. C (2006) 45: 669-677
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s2005-02446-y

Experimental Physics

Study of QGP signatures with the ϕ → K ⁺ K ^– signal in Pb-Pb ALICE events

¹ Institute for Theoretical and Experimental Physics, Moscow, Russia
² Dipartimento di Fisica dell'Universitá, Bologna, Italy
³ Museo Storico della Fisica e Centro Studi e Ricerche "Enrico Fermi", Roma, Italy
⁴ Dipartimento di Fisica dell'Universitá and INFN, Salerno, Italy
⁵ Department of Physics, Kangnung National University, Kangnung, South Korea
⁶ World Laboratory, Lausanne, Switzerland

Received: 28 April 2005
Revised: 31 October 2005
Published online: 22 December 2005

Abstract

The ϕ → K ⁺ K ^– decay channel in Pb-Pb collisions at LHC is studied through a full simulation of the ALICE detector. The study focuses on possible signatures in this channel of quark-gluon plasma (QGP) formation. On a basis of 10⁶ collisions at high centrality some proposed QGP signatures are clearly visible both in K ⁺ K ^– invariant mass and transverse mass distributions. The high significance of this observation appears to reside heavily on the use of the TOF (Time Of Flight) system of ALICE in addition to its central tracking detectors.