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.

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Comprehensive results on the production of unidentified charged particles, π

The analysis of the data collected by the NA50 experiment in 1998, reported in this paper, extends and clarifies the pattern of the previously observed J/ψ anomalous suppression. This new measurement, besides providing a deeper understanding of the previous observations, reveals a steady significative decrease in the J/ψ production rate up to the most central Pb-Pb collisions. It clearly rules out the presently available conventional (hadronic) models of J/ψ suppression, which unanimously predict a saturation of the J/ψ rate for central Pb-Pb collisions. On the contrary and together with the sharp onset of the anomalous suppression previously reported, the new observation leads to a global production rate pattern which finds its natural explanation in the framework of the formation of a deconfined state of quarks and gluons.

Midrapidity production of π ± , K ± , and (p)p measured by the ALICE experiment at the CERN Large Hadron Collider, in Pb-Pb and inelastic pp collisions at √ s NN = 5.02 TeV, is presented. The invariant yields are measured over a wide transverse momentum (p T) range from hundreds of MeV/c up to 20 GeV/c. The results in Pb-Pb collisions are presented as a function of the collision centrality, in the range 0-90%. The comparison of the p T-integrated particle ratios, i.e., proton-to-pion (p/π) and kaon-to-pion (K/π) ratios, with similar measurements in Pb-Pb collisions at √ s NN = 2.76 TeV show no significant energy dependence. Blast-wave fits of the p T spectra indicate that in the most central collisions radial flow is slightly larger at 5.02 TeV with respect to 2.76 TeV. Particle ratios (p/π , K/π) as a function of p T show pronounced maxima at p T ≈ 3 GeV/c in central Pb-Pb collisions. At high p T , particle ratios at 5.02 TeV are similar to those measured in pp collisions at the same energy and in Pb-Pb collisions at √ s NN = 2.76 TeV. Using the pp reference spectra measured at the same collision energy of 5.02 TeV, the nuclear modification factors for the different particle species are derived. Within uncertainties, the nuclear modification factor is particle species independent for high p T and compatible with measurements at √ s NN = 2.76 TeV. The results are compared to state-of-the-art model calculations, which are found to describe the observed trends satisfactorily.