Neutral meson production measurements with the ALICE at the LHC

National and Kapodistrian University of Athens

^a e-mail: pganoti@phys.uoa.gr

Published online: 22 March 2017

Abstract

Identified hadron spectra are considered to be sensitive to the transport properties of strongly interacting matter produced in high-energy nucleus-nucleus collisions. π⁰ and η mesons in ALICE are identified via their two-photon decays by using calorimeters and the central tracking system. In the latter, photons are measured via their conversion to electron-positron pairs in the material of the inner ALICE barrel tracking detectors. The measured production spectra in pp, p–Pb and Pb–Pb collisions at mid–rapidity and over a wide p_T range will be presented in the available Large Hadron Collider (LHC) energies of Run I. The resulting nuclear modification factor R_AA at different centrality classes shows a clear pattern of strong suppression in the hot QCD medium with respect to pp collisions. Comparison of the ALICE results on neutral mesons with lower-energy experiments is also discussed.