Neutral meson production in pp and Pb-Pb collisions at the LHC measured with ALICE

Abstract

We present spectra of $\pi^0$, $\eta$ and $\omega$ mesons in pp collisions and $\pi^{0}$ mesons in Pb-Pb collisions measured with ALICE at LHC energies. The $\pi^0$ and $\eta$ mesons are reconstructed via their two-photon decays by two complementary methods, using the electromagnetic calorimeters and photon conversion technique; both measurements show perfect agreement. We measure the nuclear modification factor ($R_{AA}$) of $\pi^0$ production in Pb-Pb collisions at different collision centralities and compare with lower energy results and theoretical predictions.