language: en

Study of strange particle production in pp collisions with the ALICE detector

Hélène Ricaud 1 , Alexander Kalweit 1 and Antonin Maire 2

(for the ALICE Collaboration)

1 Technical University of Darmstadt, Institut fuer Kernphysik,
Schlossgartenstrasse 9, D-64289 Darmstadt, Germany
2 Institut Pluridisciplinaire Hubert Curien,
23 rue du Loess, F-67037 Strasbourg, France
E-mail: H.Ricaud@gsi.de

Abstract. ALICE is well suited for strange particles production studies since it has very good reconstruction capabilities in the low transverse momentum (p t ) region and it also allows to extend the identification up to quite high p t . Charged strange mesons (K + , K − ,) are reconstructed via energy loss measurements whereas neutral strange mesons (K 0 s ) and strange hyperons (Λ, Ξ, Ω) are identified via vertex reconstruction. All these particles carry important information: first, the measurement of production yields and the particle ratio within the statistical models can help to understand the medium created and secondly the dynamics at intermediate p t investigated via the baryon over meson ratio (Λ/K 0 s ) allows a better understanding of the hadronization mechanisms and of the underlying event processes. We present these two aspects of the strange particles analysis in pp collisions using simulated data.

[Study of strange particle production in pp collisions with the ALICE detector 2]

1. Introduction