Strange and Non-strange Light-Flavour Hadron Production in Pb–Pb and p–Pb Collisions at LHC Energies with ALICE

Abstract

The ALICE experiment is dedicated to the study of strongly interacting matter at the extremely high temperatures and energy densities reached at the LHC. We report on the production of \(\mathrm {\pi }\), K and p measured with ALICE in p–Pb and Pb–Pb collisions at the top LHC energies of \(\sqrt{s_{\mathrm {NN}}}~=\) 8.16 and 5.02 TeV, respectively, as well as on the production of \(\mathrm {\Lambda }\), \(\mathrm {\Xi }\) and \(\mathrm {\Omega }\) in Pb–Pb collisions at \(\sqrt{s_{\mathrm {NN}}}\) = 5.02 TeV. Excellent tracking and particle-identification capabilities of the ALICE experiment allow characterising the hot nuclear matter via detailed measurements of particle production in nucleus-nucleus collisions. In addition, the study of proton-nucleus collisions provides a fundamental benchmark for initial state and cold nuclear matter effects.