Neutral pion and $\eta$ meson production at mid-rapidity in Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 2.76 TeV

The ALICE collaboration Acharya, Shreyasi ; Torales - Acosta, Fernando ; Adamova, Dagmar ; et al.
Phys.Rev.C 98 (2018) 044901, 2018.
Inspire Record 1662651 DOI 10.17182/hepdata.83964

Neutral pion and $\eta$ meson production in the transverse momentum range 1 < $p_{T}$ < 20 GeV/$c$ have been measured at mid-rapidity by the ALICE experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in central and semi-central Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 2.76 TeV. These results were obtained using the photon conversion method as well as the PHOS and EMCal detectors. The results extend the upper $p_{T}$ reach of the previous ALICE $\pi^{0}$ measurements from 12 GeV/$c$ to 20 GeV/$c$ and present the first measurement of $\eta$ meson production in heavy-ion collisions at the LHC. The $\eta/\pi^{0}$ ratio is similar for the two centralities and reaches at high $p_{T}$ a plateau value of 0.457 $\pm$ 0.013$^{stat}$ $\pm$ 0.018$^{syst}$. A suppression of similar magnitude for $\pi^{0}$ and $\eta$ meson production is observed in Pb-Pb collisions with respect to their production in pp collisions scaled by the number of binary nucleon-nucleon collisions. We discuss the results in terms of NLO pQCD predictions and hydrodynamic models. The measurements show a stronger suppression with respect to what was observed at lower center-of-mass energies in the $p_{T}$ range 6 < $p_{T}$ < 10 GeV/$c$. At $p_{T}$ < 3 GeV/$c$, hadronization models describe the $\pi^{0}$ results while for the $\eta$ some tension is observed.

10 data tables

Invariant yields of the $\pi^{0}$ meson in the centrality class 0-10% in Pb-Pb collisions at sqrt{s_NN} = 2.76 TeV at mid-rapidity.

Invariant yields of the $\pi^{0}$ meson in the centrality class 20-50% in Pb-Pb collisions at sqrt{s_NN} = 2.76 TeV at mid-rapidity.

Invariant yields of the $\eta$ meson in the centrality class 0-10% in Pb-Pb collisions at sqrt{s_NN} = 2.76 TeV at mid-rapidity.

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Neutral pion production at midrapidity in pp and Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 2.76 TeV

The ALICE collaboration Abelev, Betty Bezverkhny ; Adam, Jaroslav ; Adamova, Dagmar ; et al.
Eur.Phys.J.C 74 (2014) 3108, 2014.
Inspire Record 1296306 DOI 10.17182/hepdata.30758

Invariant yields of neutral pions at midrapidity in the transverse momentum range $0.6 < p_{T} < 12 GeV/c$ measured in Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}} = 2.76$ TeV are presented for six centrality classes. The pp reference spectrum was measured in the range $0.4 < p_{T} < 10 GeV/c$ at the same center-of-mass energy. The nuclear modification factor, $R_{\rm AA}$, shows a suppression of neutral pions in central Pb-Pb collisions by a factor of up to about $8-10$ for $5 \lesssim p_{T} \lesssim 7 GeV/c$. The presented measurements are compared with results at lower center-of-mass energies and with theoretical calculations.

17 data tables

Invariant differential yields of PI0 produced in inelastic pp collisions at center-of-mass energy 2.76 TeV.

Invariant differential cross section of PI0 produced in inelastic pp collisions at center-of-mass energy 2.76 TeV, the uncertainty of \sigma_{inel} of 3.9% is not included in the systematic error.

Invariant differential yields of PI0 produced in 0-5% central inelastic PbPb collisions at center-of-mass energy per nucleon 2.76 TeV.

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