Measurements of cross sections of inelastic and diffractive processes in proton--proton collisions at LHC energies were carried out with the ALICE detector. The fractions of diffractive processes in inelastic collisions were determined from a study of gaps in charged particle pseudorapidity distributions: for single diffraction (diffractive mass $M_X < 200$ GeV/$c^2$) $\sigma_{\rm SD}/\sigma_{\rm INEL} = 0.21 \pm 0.03, 0.20^{+0.07}_{-0.08}$, and $0.20^{+0.04}_{-0.07}$, respectively at centre-of-mass energies $\sqrt{s} = 0.9, 2.76$, and 7~TeV; for double diffraction (for a pseudorapidity gap $\Delta\eta > 3$) $\sigma_{\rm DD}/\sigma_{\rm INEL} = 0.11 \pm 0.03, 0.12 \pm 0.05$, and $0.12^{+0.05}_{-0.04}$, respectively at $\sqrt{s} = 0.9, 2.76$, and 7~TeV. To measure the inelastic cross section, beam properties were determined with van der Meer scans, and, using a simulation of diffraction adjusted to data, the following values were obtained: $\sigma_{\rm INEL} = 62.8^{+2.4}_{-4.0} (model) \pm 1.2 (lumi)$ mb at $\sqrt{s} =$ 2.76~TeV and $73.2^{+2.0}_{-4.6} (model) \pm 2.6 (lumi)$ mb at $\sqrt{s}$ = 7~TeV. The single- and double-diffractive cross sections were calculated combining relative rates of diffraction with inelastic cross sections. The results are compared to previous measurements at proton--antiproton and proton--proton colliders at lower energies, to measurements by other experiments at the LHC, and to theoretical models.

We report the first measurement of the net-charge fluctuations in Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}$ = 2.76 TeV, measured with the ALICE detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. The dynamical fluctuations per unit entropy are observed to decrease when going from peripheral to central collisions. An additional reduction in the amount of fluctuations is seen in comparison to the results from lower energies. We examine the dependence of fluctuations on the pseudorapidity interval, which may account for the dilution of fluctuations during the evolution of the system. We find that the fluctuations at LHC are smaller compared to the measurements at the Relativistic heavy Ion Collider (RHIC), and as such, closer to what has been theoretically predicted for the formation of Quark-Gluon Plasma (QGP).

The differential production cross section of electrons from semileptonic heavy-flavour hadron decays has been measured at mid-rapidity ($|y| < 0.5$) in proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s} = 7$ TeV with ALICE at the LHC. Electrons were measured in the transverse momentum range 0.5 $<p_{\rm T}<$ 8 GeV/$c$. Predictions from a fixed order perturbative QCD calculation with next-to-leading-log resummation agree with the data within the theoretical and experimental uncertainties.

The ALICE Collaboration has measured the inclusive production of muons from heavy flavour decays at forward rapidity, 2.5 < y < 4, in pp and Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt {s_{NN}}$ = 2.76 TeV. The $p_{\rm T}$-differential inclusive cross section of muons from heavy flavour decays in pp collisions is compared to perturbative QCD calculations. The nuclear modification factor is studied as a function of pt and collision centrality. A weak suppression is measured in peripheral collisions. In the most central collisions, a suppression of a factor of about 3-4 is observed in 6 < $p_{\rm T}$ < 10 GeV/$c$. The suppression shows no significant $p_{\rm T}$ dependence.

The first measurements of the invariant differential cross sections of inclusive $\pi^0$ and $\eta$ meson production at mid-rapidity in proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s}=0.9$ TeV and $\sqrt{s}=7$ TeV are reported. The $\pi^0$ measurement covers the ranges $0.4<p_T<7$ GeV/$c$ and $0.3<p_T<25$ GeV/$c$ for these two energies, respectively. The production of $\eta$ mesons was measured at $\sqrt{s}=7$ TeV in the range $0.4<p_T<15$ GeV/$c$. Next-to-Leading Order perturbative QCD calculations, which are consistent with the $\pi^0$ spectrum at $\sqrt{s}=0.9$ TeV, overestimate those of $\pi^0$ and $\eta$ mesons at $\sqrt{s}=7$ TeV, but agree with the measured $\eta/\pi^0$ ratio at $\sqrt{s}=7$ TeV.

Measurements of the sphericity of primary charged particles in minimum bias proton--proton collisions at $\sqrt{s}=0.9$, 2.76 and 7 TeV with the ALICE detector at the LHC are presented. The observable is linearized to be collinear safe and is measured in the plane perpendicular to the beam direction using primary charged tracks with $p_{\rm T}\geq0.5$ GeV/c in $|\eta|\leq0.8$. The mean sphericity as a function of the charged particle multiplicity at mid-rapidity ($N_{\rm ch}$) is reported for events with different $p_{\rm T}$ scales ("soft" and "hard") defined by the transverse momentum of the leading particle. In addition, the mean charged particle transverse momentum versus multiplicity is presented for the different event classes, and the sphericity distributions in bins of multiplicity are presented. The data are compared with calculations of standard Monte Carlo event generators. The transverse sphericity is found to grow with multiplicity at all collision energies, with a steeper rise at low $N_{\rm ch}$, whereas the event generators show the opposite tendency. The combined study of the sphericity and the mean $p_{\rm T}$ with multiplicity indicates that most of the tested event generators produce events with higher multiplicity by generating more back-to-back jets resulting in decreased sphericity (and isotropy). The PYTHIA6 generator with tune PERUGIA-2011 exhibits a noticeable improvement in describing the data, compared to the other tested generators.

The $p_{\rm T}$-differential production cross sections of the prompt (B feed-down subtracted) charmed mesons D$^0$, D$^+$, and D$^{*+}$ in the rapidity range $|y|<0.5$, and for transverse momentum $1< p_{\rm T} <12$ GeV/$c$, were measured in proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s} = 2.76$ TeV with the ALICE detector at the Large Hadron Collider. The analysis exploited the hadronic decays D$^0 \rightarrow $K$\pi$, D$^+ \rightarrow $K$\pi\pi$, D$^{*+} \rightarrow $D$^0\pi$, and their charge conjugates, and was performed on a $L_{\rm int} = 1.1$ nb$^{-1}$ event sample collected in 2011 with a minimum-bias trigger. The total charm production cross section at $\sqrt{s} = 2.76$ TeV and at 7 TeV was evaluated by extrapolating to the full phase space the $p_{\rm T}$-differential production cross sections at $\sqrt{s} = 2.76$ TeV and our previous measurements at $\sqrt{s} = 7$ TeV. The results were compared to existing measurements and to perturbative-QCD calculations. The fraction of cdbar D mesons produced in a vector state was also determined.

A measurement of the multi-strange $\Xi^-$ and $\Omega^-$ baryons and their antiparticles by the ALICE experiment at the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is presented for inelastic proton-proton collisions at centre of mass energy of 7 TeV. The transverse momentum ($p_{\rm T}$) distributions were studied at mid-rapidity (|y| < 0.5) in the range of 0.6 < $p_{\rm T}$ < 8.5 GeV/$c$ for $\Xi^-$ and $\Xi^+$ baryons, and in the range of 0.8 < $p_{\rm T}$ < 5 GeV/$c$ for $\Omega^-$ and $\Omega^+$. Baryons and antibaryons were measured as separate particles and we find that the baryon to antibaryon ratio of both particle species is consistent with unity over the entire range of the measurement. The statistical precision of the current LHC data has allowed us to measure a difference between the mean $p_{\rm T}$ of $\Xi^-$ ($\Xi^+$) and $\Omega^-$ ($\Omega^+$). Particle yields, mean $p_{\rm T}$, and the spectra in the intermediate $p_{\rm T}$ range are not well described by the PYTHIA Perugia 2011 tune Monte Carlo event generator, which has been tuned to reproduce the early LHC data. The discrepancy is largest for $\Omega^-$ ($\Omega^+$). This PYTHIA tune approaches the $p_{\rm T}$ spectra of $\Xi^-$ and $\Xi^+$ baryons below $p_{\rm T}$ < 0.85 GeV/$c$ and describes the $\Xi^-$ and $\Xi^+$ spectra above $p_{\rm T}$ > 6.0 GeV/$c$. We also illustrate the difference between the experimental data and model by comparing the corresponding ratios of ($\Omega^{-}+\Omega^+)/(\Xi^-+\Xi^+)$ as a function of transverse mass.

The ALICE Collaboration has measured inclusive J/psi production in pp collisions at a center of mass energy sqrt(s)=2.76 TeV at the LHC. The results presented in this Letter refer to the rapidity ranges |y|<0.9 and 2.5<y<4 and have been obtained by measuring the electron and muon pair decay channels, respectively. The integrated luminosities for the two channels are L^e_int=1.1 nb^-1 and L^mu_int=19.9 nb^-1, and the corresponding signal statistics are N_J/psi^e+e-=59 +/- 14 and N_J/psi^mu+mu-=1364 +/- 53. We present dsigma_J/psi/dy for the two rapidity regions under study and, for the forward-y range, d^2sigma_J/psi/dydp_t in the transverse momentum domain 0<p_t<8 GeV/c. The results are compared with previously published results at sqrt(s)=7 TeV and with theoretical calculations.

The ALICE collaboration reports the measurement of the inclusive J/psi yield as a function of charged particle pseudorapidity density dN_{ch}/deta in pp collisions at sqrt{s} = 7 TeV at the LHC. J/psi particles are detected for p_t > 0, in the rapidity interval |y| < 0.9 via decay into e+e-, and in the interval 2.5 < y < 4.0 via decay into mu+mu- pairs. An approximately linear increase of the J/psi yields normalized to their event average (dN_{J/psi}/dy)/<dN_{J/psi}/dy> with (dN_{ch}/deta)/<dN_{ch}/deta> is observed in both rapidity ranges, where dN_{ch}/deta is measured within |eta| < 1 and p_t > 0. In the highest multiplicity interval with <dN_{ch}/deta(bin)> = 24.1, corresponding to four times the minimum bias multiplicity density, an enhancement relative to the minimum bias J/psi yield by a factor of about 5 at 2.5 < y < 4 (8 at |y| < 0.9) is observed.