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

TL;DR

This paper reports on measurements of light flavor particle spectra in p-Pb collisions at the LHC, providing insights into initial and final state effects relevant for understanding QCD phenomena and the formation of hot deconfined matter.

Contribution

It offers new experimental data on particle spectra in p-Pb collisions, aiding the disentanglement of initial and final state effects in high-energy nuclear interactions.

Findings

Initial state effects are negligible in high pT suppression.

Evidence of collective effects at low and intermediate pT.

p-Pb data serve as a crucial reference for heavy-ion collision studies.

Abstract

Measurements of the transverse momentum spectra of light flavor particles at intermediate and high pT 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 pT in heavy ion collisions, several measurements of particle production in the low and intermediate pT region indicate the presence of collective effects.