Measurement of the ψ (2S) production in presence of a Quark-Gluon Plasma

The nuclear matter, which constitutes the atomic nuclei, is composed of quarks and gluons and interactions between them are described by quantum chromo-dynamics (QCD). Under ordinary conditions, quarks and gluons cannot be observed isolated and are confined inside hadrons such as protons and neutrons. The Quark-Gluon Plasma (QGP) is a state of nuclear matter predicted by QCD where quarks and gluons are deconfined. Experimentally, a QGP can be created in ultra-relativistic heavy ion collisions such as the lead-lead collisions delivered at the LHC, corresponding to speeds close to the speed of light. It is possible to obtain information on the characteristics of the QGP by measuring a large number of observables. In particular, the production of charmonium states such as the J/ψ and the ψ(2S), heavy particles composed of a charm and anti-charm pair (cc-bar), is studied to investigate the plasma. Indeed, the presence of QGP is expected to modify the charmonium production yields, due to a balance between the mechanism of color screening of the charm quark potential and a mechanism called recombination. This balance depends on the collision energy, the temperature of the plasma and nature on the considered particle, in particular one expects the ψ(2S) to be more suppressed than the J/ψ. In this thesis the inclusive production of ψ(2S) in Pb - Pb collisions at an energy per nucleon-nucleon collision in the center of mass frame of √(S_NN) = 5.02 TeV is measured in the dimuon-decay channel, using the ALICE Muon Spectrometer. The analysis is based on the data collected in ALICE (A Large Ion Collider Experiment) at the LHC in 2015 with an integrated luminosity of 225 μb^-1. The nuclear modification factor RAA is studied as a function of centrality. The ratio of the ψ(2S) and J/ψ RAA is also evaluated and shows that the ψ(2S) is more suppressed than the J/ψ for mid-central and central events. Compared with theoretical predictions, the measurements are, within uncertainty, in agreement with theoretical model. The upgrade of the Muon Trigger, the MID (Muon Identifier), is also studied, in particular the expected data flow at a collisions rate of 100 kHz. Based on the Pb - Pb data at a collision energy of √(S_NN) = 5.02 TeV, the estimations predict that the technology that will be implemented in the MID provides a sufficient bandwidth to sustain the data flow. (author) (author)