Neutral meson production in pp and Pb–Pb collisions at the LHC measured with ALICE

Abstract

We present spectra of π 0 , η and ω mesons in pp collisions and π 0 mesons in Pb–Pb collisions measured with ALICE at LHC energies. The π 0 and η mesons are reconstructed via their two-photon decays by two complementary methods, using the electromagnetic calorimeters and photon conversion technique; both measurements show perfect agreement. We measure the nuclear modification factor ( R A A ) of π 0 production in Pb–Pb collisions at different collision centralities and compare with lower energy results and theoretical predictions.