ALICE is the heavy-ion experiment at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. The experiment continuously took data during the first physics campaign of the machine from fall 2009 until early 2013, using proton and lead-ion beams. In this paper we describe the running environment and the data handling procedures, and discuss the performance of the ALICE detectors and analysis methods for various physics observables.

ALICE is a general-purpose heavy-ion experiment designed to study the physics of strongly interacting matter and the quark–gluon plasma in nucleus–nucleus collisions at the LHC. It currently involves more than 900 physicists and senior engineers, from both the nuclear and high-energy physics sectors, from over 90 institutions in about 30 countries.The ALICE detector is designed to cope with the highest particle multiplicities above those anticipated for Pb–Pb collisions (dNch/dy up to 8000) and it will be operational at the start-up of the LHC. In addition to heavy systems, the ALICE Collaboration will study collisions of lower-mass ions, which are a means of varying the energy density, and protons (both pp and pA), which primarily provide reference data for the nucleus–nucleus collisions. In addition, the pp data will allow for a number of genuine pp physics studies.The detailed design of the different detector systems has been laid down in a number of Technical Design Reports issued between mid-1998 and the end of 2004. The experiment is currently under construction and will be ready for data taking with both proton and heavy-ion beams at the start-up of the LHC.Since the comprehensive information on detector and physics performance was last published in the ALICE Technical Proposal in 1996, the detector, as well as simulation, reconstruction and analysis software have undergone significant development. The Physics Performance Report (PPR) provides an updated and comprehensive summary of the performance of the various ALICE subsystems, including updates to the Technical Design Reports, as appropriate.The PPR is divided into two volumes. Volume I, published in 2004 (CERN/LHCC 2003-049, ALICE Collaboration 2004 J. Phys. G: Nucl. Part. Phys. 30 1517–1763), contains in four chapters a short theoretical overview and an extensive reference list concerning the physics topics of interest to ALICE, the experimental conditions at the LHC, a short summary and update of the subsystem designs, and a description of the offline framework and Monte Carlo event generators.The present volume, Volume II, contains the majority of the information relevant to the physics performance in proton–proton, proton–nucleus, and nucleus–nucleus collisions. Following an introductory overview, Chapter 5 describes the combined detector performance and the event reconstruction procedures, based on detailed simulations of the individual subsystems. Chapter 6 describes the analysis and physics reach for a representative sample of physics observables, from global event characteristics to hard processes.

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Characterisation results from a single‐crystal CVD diamond detector are reported, which is under development for heavy‐ion particle identification and minimum‐ionizing particles timing in nuclear physics experiments. The charge collection efficiency is about 100%, never obtained from polycrystalline CVD‐diamond detectors. An energy resolution of 20 keV (ΔE/E ≈ 0.004) is achieved using a mixed nuclide α‐source, which is comparable to the energy resolution of silicon pin diode detectors. Using low impedance broadband electronics and a ToF technique, where holes or electrons drift separately inside the diamond bulk, the saturation velocity, mobility and lifetime of both charge carriers are estimated. In addition the thermoluminescent properties of the new material are discussed in comparison to polycrystalline diamond. A much lower density of trapping centres has been found for single‐crystal CVD diamond. (© 2005 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)

Charge‐transport parameters measured for several single‐crystal CVD‐diamond films are discussed as well as the consequences for the energy‐ and the time resolution of charged‐particle detectors made of these samples. Applying a transient‐current technique, where 241Am α‐particles are used for e–h pair creation, low‐field electron mobility values varying in the range 1300 < µ 0–e [cm2/Vs] < 3100 are obtained, and a common saturation velocity around v sat–e ≈ 1.9 × 107 [cm/s]. Hole data show impressive uniformity with µ 0–h ≈ 2330 [cm2/Vs] and v sat–h ≈ 1.4 × 107 [cm/s]. At detector operation bias (0.3 V/μm < E D < 3 V/μm) the holes drift systematically faster than the electrons. The lifetime of the charge carriers in best samples amounts to τ h ≈ 1 µs for holes and to τ e ∼ 320 ns for electrons. Comparable to the energy resolution of commercial silicon detectors, a ΔE = 17 keV (FWHM) is measured for 5.5 MeV α‐particles and ΔE /E ∼ 1% for heavy ions. Tests of single‐ and polycrystalline detectors with relativistic 27Al ions of 2 AGeV reveal the same intrinsic time resolution of σ (Δt) = 28 ps indicating limitations due to electronic noise. (© 2006 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)