Neutral meson spectra measurements with ALICE

TL;DR

This paper reports on measurements of neutral meson spectra in proton-proton collisions using ALICE's electromagnetic calorimeters, providing data to test QCD and support future heavy-ion studies.

Contribution

It demonstrates the feasibility of measuring pi0 and eta meson spectra in pp collisions at LHC energies with ALICE detectors.

Findings

Successful measurement of neutral meson spectra at 7 TeV and 900 GeV

Validation of calorimeter performance for meson reconstruction

Provision of reference data for heavy-ion collision analysis

Abstract

The ALICE experiment is equipped with electromagnetic calorimeters of two different types: PHOS, the lead-tungstate photon spectrometer, and EMCAL, the sampling lead-scintillator calorimeter. These two detectors measure photon spectra in a wide kinematic range and allow the reconstruction of neutral mesons decaying into photons. The measurement of the inclusive spectra of neutral meson production in pp collisions will not only provide a test of perturbative QCD but also important reference data for future heavy-ion measurements. The status of the analysis of the data accumulated during the LHC proton-proton runs at collision energies of 7 TeV and 900 GeV is shown, and the feasibility to measure the pi0 and eta meson spectra in proton-proton collisions is demonstrated.