The differential cross sections for inclusive neutral pions as a function of transverse and longitudinal momentum in the very forward rapidity region have been measured at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) with the Large Hadron Collider forward detector (LHCf) in proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s}=$ 2.76 and 7 TeV and in proton-lead collisions at nucleon-nucleon center-of-mass energies of $\sqrt{s_\text{NN}}=$ 5.02 TeV. Such differential cross sections in proton-proton collisions are compatible with the hypotheses of limiting fragmentation and Feynman scaling. Comparing proton-proton with proton-lead collisions, we find a sizable suppression of the production of neutral pions in the differential cross sections after subtraction of ultra-peripheral proton-lead collisions. This suppression corresponds to the nuclear modification factor value of about 0.1-0.3. The experimental measurements presented in this paper provide a benchmark for the hadronic interaction Monte Carlo simulation codes that are used for the simulation of cosmic ray air showers.
The average $\pi^{0}$ transverse momenta for the rapidity range $8.8<y<10.6$ in $p+p$ collisions at $\sqrt{s}=2.76$ and 7 TeV and for the rapidity range $-8.8>y_\rm{lab}>-10.6$ in $p+\rm{Pb}$ collisions at $\sqrt{s_\rm{NN}}=5.02$ TeV. The rapidity values for $p+\rm{Pb}$ collisions are in the detector reference frame and must be multiplied by -1.
Production rate for the $\pi^{0}$ production in the rapidity range $8.8 < y < 9.0$ in $p+p$ collisions and in the rapidity range $-8.8 > y_\rm{lab} > -9.0$ in $p+\rm{Pb}$ collisions.
Production rate for the $\pi^{0}$ production in the rapidity range $9.0 < y < 9.2$ in $p+p$ collisions and in the rapidity range $-9.0 > y_\rm{lab} > -9.2$ in $p+\rm{Pb}$ collisions.
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