Measurement of Z boson Production in Lead-Lead Collisions at sNN=2.76 TeV with the ATLAS Detector

The ATLAS experiment has observed 1995 Z boson candidates from an integrated luminosity 0.15nb−1 collected in the 2011 LHC Pb + Pb run at sNN=2.76 TeV. The Z bosons are reconstructed via di-electron and di-muon decay channels. The results from both channels are consistent with each other and are combined. The background is less than 3% of the selected sample. Within the statistical and systematic uncertainties, the per-event Z boson yield integrated over rapidity |yZ|<2.5 is proportional to the number of binary collisions estimated by the Glauber model. The elliptic flow coefficient of the azimuthal distribution of the Z boson with respect to the event plane is consistent with zero.