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.

The ratio of the yields of antiprotons to protons in pp collisions has been measured by the ALICE experiment at sqrt[s]=0.9 and 7 TeV during the initial running periods of the Large Hadron Collider. The measurement covers the transverse momentum interval 0.45

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The p t -differential inclusive production cross sections of the prompt charmed mesons D 0 , D + , and D * + in the rapidity range |y| < 0.5 were measured in proton-proton collisions at √ s = 7 TeV at the LHC using the ALICE detector. Reconstructing the decaysand their charge conjugates, about 8,400 D 0 , 2,900 D + , and 2,600 D * + mesons with 1 < p t < 24 GeV/c were counted, after selection cuts, in a data sample of 3.14×10 8 events collected with a minimum-bias trigger (integrated luminosity L int = 5 nb −1 ). The results are described within uncertainties by predictions based on perturbative QCD.

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