Eur. Phys. J. C (2009) 61: 735-740
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-009-0926-1

Regular Article - Experimental Physics

Exploring the LHC medium with direct photons

GSI, Planckstrasse 1, 64291, Darmstadt, Germany

^* e-mail: a.marin@gsi.de

Received: 18 September 2008
Revised: 16 January 2009
Published online: 13 February 2009

Abstract

Heavy-ion collisions will enter a new era with the start of the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC). A first short run with proton-proton collisions at the injection energy of 0.9 TeV will be followed by a longer one with pp collisions at 10 TeV. First Pb-Pb collisions at  TeV will take place in 2009. Three experiments (ALICE, ATLAS, and CMS) will study both pp and Pb-Pb collisions. A selection of results showing the capabilities of the three experiments for the study of the LHC medium with direct photons is presented.