https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-009-1034-y
Regular Article - Experimental Physics
ALICE-PHOS: acceptance and efficiency correction factors p−p→π 0+X at 10 TeV
SUBATECH, Ecole des Mines de Nantes, Université de Nantes, CNRS/IN2P3, 4 rue Alfred Kastler, 44307, Nantes, France
* e-mail: lamia.benhabib@subatech.in2p3.fr
Received:
30
September
2008
Revised:
17
March
2009
Published online:
28
April
2009
In ultra-relativistic Heavy-Ion Collisions (HIC), the properties of the quark gluon plasma (QGP) can be explored, in particular, via measurements of neutral pions. The π 0 is an important probe for both proton and heavy ion physics. In the former case, π 0 production provides an important mean of testing pQCD as well as useful data to constrain current and future theoretical models. In the latter case, π 0 measurements will serve as a baseline for exploring the nature of the HIC hard scattering. In the ALICE experiment, π 0 mesons are identified as they decay into two photons (π 0→γ γ) using the high-resolution photon spectrometer (PHOS). PHOS will measure π 0 transverse momentum over a wide range, from hundreds of MeV/c to several tens of GeV/c. An estimation of π 0 production cross-section in proton–proton collisions is calculated in a next-to-leading order (NLO) approximation and first presented. The π 0 geometrical acceptance and the identification efficiency along with the analysis on the invariant mass are the two important correction factors for obtaining a realistic π 0 spectrum discussed in this paper.
© Springer-Verlag , 2009