The charged-particle pseudorapidity density measured over 4 units of pseudorapidity in non-single-diffractive (NSD) p-Pb collisions at a centre-of-mass energy per nucleon pair $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}} = 5.02$ TeV is presented. The average value at midrapidity is measured to be $16.81 \pm 0.71$ (syst.), which corresponds to $2.14 \pm 0.17$ (syst.) per participating nucleon. This is 16% lower than in NSD pp collisions interpolated to the same collision energy, and 84% higher than in d-Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}} = 0.2$ TeV. The measured pseudorapidity density in p-Pb collisions is compared to model predictions, and provides new constraints on the description of particle production in high-energy nuclear collisions.

In this paper measurements are presented of $\rm \pi$$^+$, $\rm \pi$$^-$, K$^+$, K$^-$, p and $\overline{\rm p}$ production at mid-rapidity < 0.5, in Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}} = 2.76$ TeV as a function of centrality. The measurement covers the transverse momentum ($p_{\rm T}$) range from 100, 200, 300 MeV/$c$ up to 3, 3, 4.6 GeV/$c$, for $\rm\pi$, K, and p respectively. The measured $p_{\rm T}$ distributions and yields are compared to expectations based on hydrodynamic, thermal and recombination models. The spectral shapes of central collisions show a stronger radial flow than measured at lower energies, which can be described in hydrodynamic models. In peripheral collisions, the $p_{\rm T}$ distributions are not well reproduced by hydrodynamic models. Ratios of integrated particle yields are found to be nearly independent of centrality. The yield of protons normalized to pions is a factor ~1.5 lower than the expectation from thermal models.

In this Letter we report the first results on $\pi^\pm$, K$^\pm$, p and $\mathrm {p\overline{p}}$ production at mid-rapidity ($\left|y\right|<0.5$) in central Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}$ = 2.76 TeV, measured by the ALICE experiment at the LHC. The $p_{\rm T}$ distributions and yields are compared to previous results at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}$ = 200 GeV and expectations from hydrodynamic and thermal models. The spectral shapes indicate a strong increase of the radial flow velocity with $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}$, which in hydrodynamic models is expected as a consequence of the increasing particle density. While the ${\rm K}/\pi$ ratio is in line with predictions from the thermal model, the ${\rm p}/\pi$ ratio is found to be lower by a factor of about 1.5. This deviation from thermal model expectations is still to be understood.

The production of K$^{*}$(892)$^{0}$ and $\phi$(1020) in pp collisions at $\sqrt{s}=7$ TeV was measured by the ALICE experiment at the LHC. The yields and the transverse momentum spectra d$^{2}$N/d$y$d$p_{\rm T}$ at midrapidity $|y|<0.5$ in the range $0<p_{\rm T}<6$ GeV/$c$ for K$^{*}$(892)$^{0}$ and $0.4<p_{\rm T}<6$ GeV/$c$ for $\phi$(1020) are reported and compared to model predictions. Using the yield of pions, kaons, and Omega baryons measured previously by ALICE at $\sqrt{s}=7$ TeV, the ratios K$^{*}$/K$^{-}$, $\phi$/K$^{*}$, $\phi$/K$^{-}$, $\phi/\pi^{-}$, and ($\Omega$ + $\overline{\Omega}$)/$\phi$ are presented. The values of the K$^{*}$/K$^{-}$, $\phi$/K$^{*}$ and $\phi$/K$^{-}$ ratios are similar to those found at lower centre-of-mass energies. In contrast, the $\phi/\pi^{-}$ ratio, which has been observed to increase with energy, seems to saturate above 200 GeV. The ($\Omega$ + $\overline{\Omega}$)/$\phi$ ratio in the $p_{\rm T}$ range $1$-$5$ GeV/$c$ is found to be in good agreement with the prediction of the HIJING/BB v2.0 model with a strong colour field.

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.

We present measurements of Underlying Event observables in pp collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 0.9 and 7 TeV. The analysis is performed as a function of the highest charged-particle transverse momentum $p_{\rm T, LT}$ in the event. Different regions are defined with respect to the azimuthal direction of the leading (highest transverse momentum) track: Toward, Transverse and Away. The Toward and Away regions collect the fragmentation products of the hardest partonic interaction. The Transverse region is expected to be most sensitive to the Underlying Event activity. The study is performed with charged particles above three different $p_{\rm T}$ thresholds: 0.15, 0.5 and 1.0 GeV/$c$. In the Transverse region we observe an increase in the multiplicity of a factor 2-3 between the lower and higher collision energies, depending on the track $p){\rm T}$ threshold considered. Data are compared to Pythia 6.4, Pythia 8.1 and Phojet. On average, all models considered underestimate the multiplicity and summed $p_{\rm T}$ in the Transverse region by about 10-30%.

We present the first wide-range measurement of the charged-particle pseudorapidity density distribution, for different centralities (the 0-5%, 5-10%, 10-20%, and 20-30% most central events) in Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}} = 2.76$ TeV at the LHC. The measurement is performed using the full coverage of the ALICE detectors, $-5.0 < \eta < 5.5$, and employing a special analysis technique based on collisions arising from LHC "satellite" bunches. We present the pseudorapidity density as a function of the number of participating nucleons as well as an extrapolation to the total number of produced charged particles ($N_{\rm ch} = 17165 \pm 772$ for the 0-5% most central collisions). From the measured ${\rm d}N_{\rm ch}/{\rm d}\eta$ distribution we derive the rapidity density distribution, ${\rm d}N_{\rm ch}/{\rm d}y$, under simple assumptions. The rapidity density distribution is found to be significantly wider than the predictions of the Landau model. We assess the validity of longitudinal scaling by comparing to lower energy results from RHIC. Finally the mechanisms of the underlying particle production are discussed based on a comparison with various theoretical models.

The ALICE measurement of K$^0_{\rm S}$ and $\rm\Lambda$ production at mid-rapidity in Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}} = 2.76$ TeV is presented. The transverse momentum ($p_{\rm T}$) spectra are shown for several collision centrality intervals and in the $p_{\rm T}$ range from 0.4 GeV/$c$ (0.6 GeV/$c$ for $\rm\Lambda$) to 12 GeV/$c$. The $p_{\rm T}$ dependence of the $\rm \Lambda$/K$^0_{\rm S}$ ratios exhibits maxima in the vicinity of 3 GeV/$c$, and the positions of the maxima shift towards higher $p_{\rm T}$ with increasing collision centrality. The magnitude of these maxima increases by almost a factor of three between most peripheral and most central Pb-Pb collisions. This baryon excess at intermediate $p_{\rm T}$ is not observed in pp interactions at sqrt(s) = 0.9 TeV and at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV. Qualitatively, the baryon enhancement in heavy-ion collisions is expected from radial flow. However, the measured $p_{\rm T}$ spectra above 2 GeV/$c$ progressively decouple from hydrodynamical-model calculations. For higher values of $p_{\rm T}$, models that incorporate the influence of the medium on the fragmentation and hadronization processes describe qualitatively the $p_{\rm T}$ dependence of the $\rm\Lambda$/K$^0_{\rm S}$ ratio.

The differential charged jet cross sections, jet fragmentation distributions, and jet shapes are measured in minimum bias proton-proton collisions at centre-of-mass energy $\sqrt{s}=7$ TeV using the ALICE detector at the LHC. Jets are reconstructed from charged particle momenta in the mid-rapidity region using the sequential recombination $k_{\rm T}$ and anti-$k_{\rm T}$ as well as the SISCone jet finding algorithms with several resolution parameters in the range $R=0.2$ to $0.6$. Differential jet production cross sections measured with the three jet finders are in agreement in the transverse momentum ($p_{\rm T}$) interval $20<p_{\rm T}^{\rm jet,ch}<100$ GeV/$c$. They are also consistent with prior measurements carried out at the LHC by the ATLAS collaboration. The jet charged particle multiplicity rises monotonically with increasing jet $p_{\rm T}$, in qualitative agreement with prior observations at lower energies. The transverse profiles of leading jets are investigated using radial momentum density distributions as well as distributions of the average radius containing 80% ($\langle R_{\rm 80} \rangle$) of the reconstructed jet $p_{\rm T}$. The fragmentation of leading jets with $R=0.4$ using scaled $p_{\rm T}$ spectra of the jet constituents is studied. The measurements are compared to model calculations from event generators (PYTHIA, PHOJET, HERWIG). The measured radial density distributions and $\langle R_{\rm 80} \rangle$ distributions are well described by the PYTHIA model (tune Perugia-2011). The fragmentation distributions are better described by HERWIG.

The ALICE collaboration at the LHC reports measurement of the inclusive production cross section of electrons from semi-leptonic decays of beauty hadrons with rapidity $|y|<0.8$ and transverse momentum $1<p_{\mathrm{T}}<10$ GeV/$c$, in pp collisions at $\sqrt{s} = $ 2.76 TeV. Electrons not originating from semi-electronic decay of beauty hadrons are suppressed using the impact parameter of the corresponding tracks. The production cross section of beauty decay electrons is compared to the result obtained with an alternative method which uses the distribution of the azimuthal angle between heavy-flavour decay electrons and charged hadrons. Perturbative QCD calculations agree with the measured cross section within the experimental and theoretical uncertainties. The integrated visible cross section, $\sigma_{\mathrm{b} \rightarrow \mathrm{e}} = 3.47\pm0.40(\mathrm{stat})^{+1.12}_{-1.33}(\mathrm{sys})\pm0.07(\mathrm{norm}) \mu$b, was extrapolated to full phase space using Fixed Order plus Next-to-Leading Log (FONLL) predictions to obtain the total b$\bar{\mathrm{b}}$ production cross section, $\sigma_{\mathrm{b\bar{b}}} = 130\pm15.1(\mathrm{stat})^{+42.1}_{-49.8}(\mathrm{sys})^{+3.4}_{-3.1}(\mathrm{extr})\pm2.5(\mathrm{norm})\pm4.4(\mathrm{BR}) \mu$b.