Particle production in p–Pb collisions with ALICE at the LHC

Goethe University, Frankfurt, Germany and GSI, Darmstadt, Germany

Published online: 11 May 2016

Abstract

Measurements of the transverse momentum spectra of light flavor particles at intermediate and high p_T are an important tool for QCD studies. In pp collisions they provide a baseline for perturbative QCD, while in Pb–Pb they are used to investigate the suppression caused by the surrounding medium. In p–Pb collisions, such measurements provide a reference to disentangle final from initial state effects and thus play an important role in the search for signatures of the formation of a deconfined hot medium. While the comparison of the p–Pb and Pb–Pb data indicates that initial state effects do not play a role in the suppression of hadron production observed at high p_T in heavy ion collisions, several measurements of particle production in the low and intermediate p_T region indicate the presence of collective effects.