Neutral meson spectra measurements with ALICE

Abstract

The ALICE experiment is equipped with electromagnetic calorimeters of two different types: PHOS, the lead-tungstate photon spectrometer, and EMCAL, the sampling lead-scintillator calorimeter. These two detectors measure photon spectra in a wide kinematic range and allow the reconstruction of neutral mesons decaying into photons. The measurement of the inclusive spectra of neutral meson production in pp collisions will not only provide a test of perturbative QCD but also important reference data for future heavy-ion measurements. The status of the analysis of the data accumulated during the LHC proton-proton runs at collision energies of 7 TeV and 900 GeV is shown, and the feasibility to measure the pi0 and eta meson spectra in proton-proton collisions is demonstrated.