Performance and First Physics Results of the ALICE Muon Spectrometer

Abstract

A precise measurement of the heavy-flavor production cross-sections in pp collisions is an essential baseline for the heavy-ion program. In addition it is a crucial test of pQCD models in the new energy regime at LHC. ALICE measures the muons from the decay of charmonium resonances and from the semileptonic decay of heavy-flavored hadrons in its forward (-4.0 $<$ $\eta$ $<$ -2.5) Muon Spectrometer. We discuss the status of the detector and present results of data taken in pp collisions at $\sqrt{s}$=7 TeV.