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. This centrality dependence is not reproduced by HIJING, while AMPT, a model which incorporates strings and parton rescattering, exhibits qualitative agreement with the measured correlations in $\Delta\varphi$ but fails to describe the correlations in $\Delta\eta$. A thermal blast-wave model incorporating local charge conservation and tuned to describe the $p_{\rm T}$ spectra and v$_2$ measurements reported by ALICE, is used to fit the centrality dependence of the width of the balance function and to extract the average separation of balancing charges at freeze-out. The comparison of our results with measurements at lower energies reveals an ordering with $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}$: the balance functions become narrower with increasing energy for all centralities. This is consistent with the effect of larger radial flow at the LHC energies but also with the late stage creation scenario of balancing charges. However, the relative decrease of the balance function widths in $\Delta\eta$ and $\Delta\varphi$ with centrality from the highest SPS to the LHC energy exhibits only small differences. This observation cannot be interpreted solely within the framework where the majority of the charge is produced at a later stage in the evolution of the heavy--ion collision.

The correlations of identical charged kaons were measured in p-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}=5.02$ TeV by the ALICE experiment at the LHC. The femtoscopic invariant radii and correlation strengths were extracted from one-dimensional kaon correlation functions and were compared with those obtained in pp and Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s}=7$ TeV and $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}=2.76$ TeV, respectively. The presented results also complement the identical-pion femtoscopic data published by the ALICE collaboration. The extracted radii increase with increasing charged-particle multiplicity and decrease with increasing pair transverse momentum. At comparable multiplicities, the radii measured in p-Pb collisions are found to be close to those observed in pp collisions. The obtained femtoscopic parameters are reproduced by the EPOS 3 hadronic interaction model and disfavor models with large initial size or strong collective expansion at low multiplicities.

Event-by-event fluctuations of the mean transverse momentum of charged particles produced in pp collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 0.9, 2.76 and 7 TeV, and Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 2.76 TeV are studied as a function of the charged-particle multiplicity using the ALICE detector at the LHC. Dynamical fluctuations indicative of correlated particle emission are observed in all systems. The results in pp collisions show little dependence on collision energy. The Monte Carlo event generators PYTHIA and PHOJET are in qualitative agreement with the data. Peripheral Pb-Pb data exhibit a similar multiplicity dependence as that observed in pp. In central Pb-Pb, the results deviate from this trend, featuring a significant reduction of the fluctuation strength. The results in Pb--Pb are in qualitative agreement with previous measurements in Au-Au at lower collision energies and with expectations from models that incorporate collective phenomena.

In quantum scattering processes between two particles, aspects characterizing the strong and Coulomb forces can be observed in kinematic distributions of the particle pairs. The sensitivity to the interaction potential reaches a maximum at low relative momentum and vanishing distance between the two particles. Ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions at the LHC provide an abundant source of many hadron species and can be employed as a measurement method of scattering parameters that is complementary to scattering experiments. This study confirms that momentum correlations of particles produced in Pb-Pb collisions at the LHC provide an accurate measurement of kaon-proton scattering parameters at low relative momentum, allowing precise access to the $ {K}^{-} p\rightarrow {K}^{-} p$ process. This work also validates the femtoscopic measurement in ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions as an alternative to scattering experiments and a complementary tool to the study of exotic atoms with comparable precision. In this work, the first femtoscopic measurement of momentum correlations of ${K}^{-} p\ ({K}^{+}\overline{p})$ and ${K}^{+}p ({K}^{-}\overline{p})$ pairs in Pb-Pb collisions at centre-of-mass energy per nucleon pair of $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}} = 5.02$ TeV registered by the ALICE experiment is reported. The components of the ${K}^{-} p$ complex scattering length are extracted and found to be $\Re f_0=-0.91\pm~{0.03}$(stat)$^{+0.17}_{-0.03}$(syst) and $\Im f_0 = 0.92\pm~{0.05}$(stat)$^{+0.12}_{-0.33}$(syst). The results are compared with chiral effective field theory predictions as well as with existing data from dedicated scattering and exotic kaonic atom experiments.

This work presents new constraints on the existence and the binding energy of a possible $\Lambda$-$\Lambda$ bound state, the H-dibaryon, derived from $\Lambda$-$\Lambda$ femtoscopic measurements by the ALICE collaboration. The results are obtained from a new measurement using the femtoscopy technique in pp collisions at $\sqrt{s}=13$ TeV and p-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}=5.02$ TeV, combined with previously published results from p-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s}=7$ TeV. The $\Lambda$-$\Lambda$ scattering parameter space, spanned by the inverse scattering length $f_0^{-1}$ and the effective range $d_0$, is constrained by comparing the measured $\Lambda$-$\Lambda$ correlation function with calculations obtained within the Lednicky model. The data are compatible with hypernuclei results and lattice computations, both predicting a shallow attractive interaction, and permit to test different theoretical approaches describing the $\Lambda$-$\Lambda$ interaction. The region in the $(f_0^{-1},d_0)$ plane which would accommodate a $\Lambda$-$\Lambda$ bound state is substantially restricted compared to previous studies. The binding energy of the possible $\Lambda$-$\Lambda$ bound state is estimated within an effective-range expansion approach and is found to be $B_{\Lambda\Lambda}=3.2^{+1.6}_{-2.4}\mathrm{(stat)}^{+1.8}_{-1.0}\mathrm{(syst)}$ MeV.

The size of the particle emission region in high-energy collisions can be deduced using the femtoscopic correlations of particle pairs at low relative momentum. Such correlations arise due to quantum statistics and Coulomb and strong final state interactions. In this paper, results are presented from femtoscopic analyses of $\pi^{\pm}\pi^{\pm}$, ${\rm K}^{\pm}{\rm K}^{\pm}$, ${\rm K}^{0}_S{\rm K}^{0}_S$, ${\rm pp}$, and ${\rm \overline{p}}{\rm \overline{p}}$ correlations from Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm {NN}}}=2.76$ TeV by the ALICE experiment at the LHC. One-dimensional radii of the system are extracted from correlation functions in terms of the invariant momentum difference of the pair. The comparison of the measured radii with the predictions from a hydrokinetic model is discussed. The pion and kaon source radii display a monotonic decrease with increasing average pair transverse mass $m_{\rm T}$ which is consistent with hydrodynamic model predictions for central collisions. The kaon and proton source sizes can be reasonably described by approximate $m_{\rm T}$-scaling.

Angular correlations between charged trigger and associated particles are measured by the ALICE detector in p-Pb collisions at a nucleon-nucleon centre-of-mass energy of 5.02 TeV for transverse momentum ranges within 0.5 < $p_{\rm T}^{\rm assoc}$ < $p_{\rm T}^{\rm trig}$ < 4 GeV/$c$. The correlations are measured over two units of pseudorapidity and full azimuthal angle in different intervals of event multiplicity, and expressed as associated yield per trigger particle. Two long-range ridge-like structures, one on the near side and one on the away side, are observed when the per-trigger yield obtained in low-multiplicity events is subtracted from the one in high-multiplicity events. The excess on the near-side is qualitatively similar to that recently reported by the CMS collaboration, while the excess on the away-side is reported for the first time. The two-ridge structure projected onto azimuthal angle is quantified with the second and third Fourier coefficients as well as by near-side and away-side yields and widths. The yields on the near side and on the away side are equal within the uncertainties for all studied event multiplicity and $p_{\rm T}$ bins, and the widths show no significant evolution with event multiplicity or $p_{\rm T}$. These findings suggest that the near-side ridge is accompanied by an essentially identical away-side ridge.

Correlations induced by quantum statistics are sensitive to the spatio-temporal extent as well as dynamics of particle emitting sources in heavy-ion collisions. In addition, such correlations can be used to search for the presence of a coherent component of pion production. Two and three-pion correlations of same and mixed-charge are measured at low relative momentum to estimate the coherent fraction of charged pions in Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}=2.76$ TeV at the LHC with ALICE. The genuine three-pion quantum statistics correlation is found to be suppressed relative to the two-pion correlation based on the assumption of fully chaotic pion emission. The suppression is observed to decrease with triplet momentum. The observed suppression at low triplet momentum may correspond to a coherent fraction in charged pion emission of 23% $\pm$ 8%.

We report on two-particle charge-dependent correlations in pp, p-Pb, and Pb-Pb collisions as a function of the pseudorapidity and azimuthal angle difference, $\mathrm{\Delta}\eta$ and $\mathrm{\Delta}\varphi$ respectively. These correlations are studied using the balance function that probes the charge creation time and the development of collectivity in the produced system. The dependence of the balance function on the event multiplicity as well as on the trigger and associated particle transverse momentum ($p_{\mathrm{T}}$) in pp, p-Pb, and Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}} = 7$, 5.02, and 2.76 TeV, respectively, are presented. In the low transverse momentum region, for $0.2 < p_{\mathrm{T}} < 2.0$ GeV/$c$, the balance function becomes narrower in both $\mathrm{\Delta}\eta$ and $\mathrm{\Delta}\varphi$ directions in all three systems for events with higher multiplicity. The experimental findings favor models that either incorporate some collective behavior (e.g. AMPT) or different mechanisms that lead to effects that resemble collective behavior (e.g. PYTHIA8 with color reconnection). For higher values of transverse momenta the balance function becomes even narrower but exhibits no multiplicity dependence, indicating that the observed narrowing with increasing multiplicity at low $p_{\mathrm{T}}$ is a feature of bulk particle production.

We present the first ever measurements of femtoscopic correlations between the K$^0_{\rm S}$ and K$^{\rm \pm}$ particles. The analysis was performed on the data from Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}=2.76$ TeV measured by the ALICE experiment. The observed femtoscopic correlations are consistent with final-state interactions proceeding via the $a_0(980)$ resonance. The extracted kaon source radius and correlation strength parameters for K$^0_{\rm S}$K$^{\rm -}$ are found to be equal within the experimental uncertainties to those for K$^0_{\rm S}$K$^{\rm +}$. Comparing the results of the present study with those from published identical-kaon femtoscopic studies by ALICE, mass and coupling parameters for the $a_0$ resonance are constrained. Our results are also compatible with the interpretation of the $a_0$ having a tetraquark structure over that of a diquark.