SHORT LIVED RESONANCES IN ALICE

Abstract

The ability of the ALICE detector to reconstruct the K*(892)0 resonance in p – p and Pb – Pb collisions at LHC energies has been investigated, by means of a detailed study of simulated events. PYTHIA events for p – p collisions and HIJING events for Pb – Pb collisions have been generated and fully reconstructed. The K*(892)0 was identified by its hadronic decay into Kπ through invariant mass analysis. The combinatorial background has been estimated using an event-mixing technique for p – p events and a like-sign technique for the Pb – Pb ones. The role of the particle identification of the decay product is also discussed.