Charge correlations using the balance function in Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}} = 2.76$ TeV

Understand

In high-energy heavy-ion collisions, the correlations between the emitted particles can be used as a probe to gain insight into the charge creation mechanisms.

• In this Letter, we report the first results of such studies using the electric charge balance function in the relative pseudorapidity ($\Delta\eta$) and azimuthal angle ($\Delta\varphi$) in Pb--Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}=2.76$ TeV with the ALICE detector at the Large Hadron Collider.
• The width of the balance function decreases with growing centrality (i.e.
• for more central collisions) in both projections.