A detailed study of pseudorapidity densities and multiplicity distributions of primary charged particles produced in proton-proton collisions, at $\sqrt{s} =$ 0.9, 2.36, 2.76, 7 and 8 TeV, in the pseudorapidity range $|\eta|<2$, was carried out using the ALICE detector. Measurements were obtained for three event classes: inelastic, non-single diffractive and events with at least one charged particle in the pseudorapidity interval $|\eta|<1$. The use of an improved track-counting algorithm combined with ALICE's measurements of diffractive processes allows a higher precision compared to our previous publications. A KNO scaling study was performed in the pseudorapidity intervals $|\eta|<$ 0.5, 1.0 and 1.5. The data are compared to other experimental results and to models as implemented in Monte Carlo event generators PHOJET and recent tunes of PYTHIA6, PYTHIA8 and EPOS.

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).

Event-by-event fluctuations of the mean transverse momentum of charged particles produced in pp collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 0.9, 2.76 and 7 TeV, and Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 2.76 TeV are studied as a function of the charged-particle multiplicity using the ALICE detector at the LHC. Dynamical fluctuations indicative of correlated particle emission are observed in all systems. The results in pp collisions show little dependence on collision energy. The Monte Carlo event generators PYTHIA and PHOJET are in qualitative agreement with the data. Peripheral Pb-Pb data exhibit a similar multiplicity dependence as that observed in pp. In central Pb-Pb, the results deviate from this trend, featuring a significant reduction of the fluctuation strength. The results in Pb--Pb are in qualitative agreement with previous measurements in Au-Au at lower collision energies and with expectations from models that incorporate collective phenomena.

We report the measured transverse momentum ($p_{\rm T}$) spectra of primary charged particles from pp, p-Pb and Pb-Pb collisions at a center-of-mass energy $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}} = 5.02$ TeV in the kinematic range of $0.15<p_{\rm T}<50$ GeV/$c$ and $|\eta|< 0.8$. A significant improvement of systematic uncertainties motivated the reanalysis of data in pp and Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}} = 2.76$ TeV, as well as in p-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}} = 5.02$ TeV, which is also presented. Spectra from Pb-Pb collisions are presented in nine centrality intervals and are compared to a reference spectrum from pp collisions scaled by the number of binary nucleon-nucleon collisions. For central collisions, the $p_{\rm T}$ spectra are suppressed by more than a factor of 7 around 6-7 GeV/$c$ with a significant reduction in suppression towards higher momenta up to 30 GeV/$c$. The nuclear modification factor $R_{\rm pPb}$, constructed from the pp and p-Pb spectra measured at the same collision energy, is consistent with unity above 8 GeV/$c$. While the spectra in both pp and Pb-Pb collisions are substantially harder at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}} = 5.02$ TeV compared to 2.76 TeV, the nuclear modification factors show no significant collision energy dependence. The obtained results should provide further constraints on the parton energy loss calculations to determine the transport properties of the hot and dense QCD matter.

Transverse momentum ($p_{\rm T}$) spectra of charged particles at mid-pseudorapidity in Xe-Xe collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}$ = 5.44 TeV measured with the ALICE apparatus at the Large Hadron Collider are reported. The kinematic range $0.15 < p_{\rm T} < 50$ GeV/$c$ and $|\eta| < 0.8$ is covered. Results are presented in nine classes of collision centrality in the 0-80% range. For comparison, a pp reference at the collision energy of $\sqrt{s}$ = 5.44 TeV is obtained by interpolating between existing \pp measurements at $\sqrt{s}$ = 5.02 and 7 TeV. The nuclear modification factors in central Xe-Xe collisions and Pb-Pb collisions at a similar center-of-mass energy of $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}$ = 5.02 TeV, and in addition at 2.76 TeV, at analogous ranges of charged particle multiplicity density $\left\langle\rm{d}N_{\rm ch}/\rm{d}\eta\right\rangle$ show a remarkable similarity at $p_{\rm T}> 10$ GeV/$c$. The comparison of the measured $R_{\rm AA}$ values in the two colliding systems could provide insight on the path length dependence of medium-induced parton energy loss. The centrality dependence of the ratio of the average transverse momentum $\left\langle p_{\rm{T}}\right\rangle$ in Xe-Xe collisions over Pb-Pb collision at $\sqrt{s}$ = 5.02 TeV is compared to hydrodynamical model calculations.

We present the measurements of particle pair yields per trigger particle obtained from di-hadron azimuthal correlations in pp collisions at $\sqrt{s} = 0.9$, $2.76$, and $7$ TeV recorded with the ALICE detector. The yields are studied as a function of the charged particle multiplicity. Taken together with the single particle yields the pair yields provide information about parton fragmentation at low transverse momenta, as well as on the contribution of multiple parton interactions to particle production. Data are compared to calculations using the PYTHIA6, PYTHIA8, and PHOJET event generators.

This publication describes the methods used to measure the centrality of inelastic Pb-Pb collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 2.76 TeV per colliding nucleon pair with ALICE. The centrality is a key parameter in the study of the properties of QCD matter at extreme temperature and energy density, because it is directly related to the initial overlap region of the colliding nuclei. Geometrical properties of the collision, such as the number of participating nucleons and number of binary nucleon-nucleon collisions, are deduced from a Glauber model with a sharp impact parameter selection, and shown to be consistent with those extracted from the data. The centrality determination provides a tool to compare ALICE measurements with those of other experiments and with theoretical calculations.

Differential cross sections of charged particles in inelastic pp collisions as a function of $p_{\rm T}$ have been measured at $\sqrt{s}=$ 0.9, 2.76 and 7 TeV at the LHC. The $p_{\rm T}$ spectra are compared to NLO-pQCD calculations. Though the differential cross section for an individual $\sqrt{s}$ cannot be described by NLO-pQCD, the relative increase of cross section with $\sqrt{s}$ is in agreement with NLO-pQCD. Based on these measurements and observations, procedures are discussed to construct pp reference spectra at $\sqrt{s} =$ 2.76 and 5.02 TeV up to $p_{\rm T}$ = 50 GeV/$c$ as required for the calculation of the nuclear modification factor in nucleus-nucleus and proton-nucleus collisions.

The average transverse momentum $\langle p_{\rm T}\rangle$ versus the charged-particle multiplicity $N_{\rm ch}$ was measured in p-Pb collisions at a collision energy per nucleon-nucleon pair $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}=5.02$ TeV and in pp collisions at collision energies of $\sqrt{s}=0.9$, 2.76, and 7 TeV in the kinematic range $0.15<p_{\rm T}<10.0$ GeV/$c$ and $|\eta|<0.3$ with the ALICE apparatus at the LHC. These data are compared to results in Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}=2.76$ TeV at similar charged-particle multiplicities. In pp and p-Pb collisions, a strong increase of $\langle p_{\rm T}\rangle$ with $N_{\rm ch}$ is observed, which is much stronger than that measured in Pb-Pb collisions. For pp collisions, this could be attributed, within a model of hadronizing strings, to multiple-parton interactions and to a final-state color reconnection mechanism. The data in p-Pb and Pb-Pb collisions cannot be described by an incoherent superposition of nucleon-nucleon collisions and pose a challenge to most of the event 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%.