Light vector meson production at the LHC with the ALICE detector

Abstract

The measurement of light vector meson production (\rho, \omega, \phi) in pp collisions provides insight into soft Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) processes in the LHC energy range. Calculations in this regime are based on QCD inspired phenomenological models that must be tuned to the data. Moreover, light vector meson production provides a reference for high-energy heavy-ion collisions. A measurement of the \phi and \omega differential cross sections as performed by the ALICE experiment in pp collisions at 7 TeV and of the \phi cross section in pp collisions at 2.76 TeV through their decay to muon pairs and in the rapidity interval 2.5 < y < 4.