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Abstract This paper presents the measurement of the isolated prompt photon inclusive production cross section in pp and p–Pb collisions by the ALICE Collaboration at the LHC. The measurement is performed in p–Pb collisions at centre-of-mass energies per nucleon pair of$$\sqrt{s_{\text {NN}}}={5.02}\,\textrm{TeV}$$ and 8.16 TeV, as well as in pp collisions at$$\sqrt{s}={5.02}\,\textrm{TeV}$$ and 8 TeV. The cross section is obtained at midrapidity$$(|y|<0.7)$$ using a charged-track based isolation momentum$$p_\textrm{T}^{\text {iso,~ch}}<{1.5}\,\textrm{GeV}/c$$ in a cone with radius$$R=0.4$$ . The data for both collision systems are well reproduced by perturbative QCD (pQCD) calculations at next-to-leading order (NLO) using recent parton distribution functions for free (PDF) and bound (nPDF) nucleons. Furthermore, the nuclear modification factor$$R_{\text {pA}}$$ for both collision energies is consistent with unity for$$p_{\textrm{T}}$$ $$>{20}\,\textrm{GeV}/c$$ . However, deviations from unity ($$R_\textrm{pA}<1$$ ) of up to 20% are observed for$$p_{\textrm{T}}$$ $$<{20}\,\textrm{GeV}/c$$ with limited significance, indicating the possible presence of nuclear effects in the initial state of the collision. The suppression increases with decreasing$$p_{\textrm{T}}$$ with a significance of$$2.3\upsigma $$ for a non-zero slope and yields$$R_{\textrm{pA}}<1$$ with a significance of$$1.8\upsigma $$ at$$\sqrt{s_{\textrm{NN}}}={8.16}\,\textrm{TeV}$$ for$$p_{\textrm{T}}$$ $$<{20}\,\textrm{GeV}/c$$ . In addition, a significance of$$1.1\upsigma $$ is observed for$$R_{\textrm{pA}}<1$$ at the lower collision energy$$\sqrt{s_{\textrm{NN}}}={5.02}\,\textrm{TeV}$$ for$$p_{\textrm{T}} < {14}\,\textrm{GeV}/c$$ . The magnitude and shape of the suppression are consistent with pQCD predictions at NLO using nPDFs that incorporate nuclear shadowing effects in the Pb nucleus.more » « lessFree, publicly-accessible full text available December 1, 2026
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We present the measurement of the -differential production cross section of mesons in and -Pb collisions at TeV at midrapidity by ALICE. In addition, the first measurement of the nuclear modification factor for mesons at LHC energies is presented, complementing the existing measurements of lighter neutral mesons such as the and . Within the measured range, the of mesons is compatible with no cold nuclear matter effects within the uncertainties, consistent with previous measurements at lower energies. The ratio is presented for both collision systems, showing no collision system dependence within the uncertainties. The comparison to previously published ratios at lower and higher collision energies in collisions suggests a decreasing trend of the ratio above = 4 GeV/ with increasing collision energy. The data in both collision systems are compared to predictions from PYTHIA 8, EPOS LHC, and DPMJET event generators, revealing significant shortcomings in these models’ ability to describe the production of mesons.more » « lessFree, publicly-accessible full text available October 1, 2026
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Abstract The interaction between pions and nucleons plays a crucial role in hadron physics. It represents a fundamental building block of the low-energy QCD dynamics and is subject to several resonance excitations. This work studies the$$\text {p--}\uppi ^{\pm }$$ dynamics using femtoscopic correlations in high-multiplicity pp collisions at$$\sqrt{s} = 13$$ TeV measured by ALICE at the LHC. As the final-state interaction between protons and pions is well constrained by scattering experiments and the study of pionic hydrogen, the results give access to information on the particle-emitting source in pp collisions using the femtoscopy methods. The scaling of the source size of primordial protons and pions against their pair transverse mass is extracted. The results are compared with the source sizes studied with p–p,$$\text {p--K}^+$$ , and$$\uppi ^\pm $$ –$$\uppi ^\pm $$ pairs by ALICE in the same collision system and are found to be in agreement for the different particle pairs. This reinforces recent findings by ALICE of a common emission source for all hadron-pairs in pp collisions at LHC energies. Furthermore, the$$\text {p--p--}\uppi ^{\pm }$$ systems are studied using three-particle femtoscopy in pp collisions at$$\sqrt{s} = 13$$ TeV. The presence of three-body effects is analyzed utilizing the cumulant expansion method. In this formalism, the known two-body interactions are subtracted in order to isolate the three-body effects. For both,$$\text {p--p--}\uppi ^{+}$$ and$$\text {p--p--}\uppi ^{-}$$ , a non-zero cumulant is found, indicating effects beyond pairwise interactions. These results give information on the coupling of the pion to multiple nucleons.more » « less
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Abstract This paper presents the primary charged-particle multiplicity distributions in proton–lead collisions at a centre-of-mass energy per nucleon–nucleon collision of$$\sqrt{s_{\textrm{NN}}}~=~5.02$$ TeV. The distributions are reported for non-single diffractive collisions in different pseudorapidity ranges. The measurements are performed using the combined information from the Silicon Pixel Detector and the Forward Multiplicity Detector of ALICE. The multiplicity distributions are parametrised with a double negative binomial distribution function which provides satisfactory descriptions of the distributions for all the studied pseudorapidity intervals. The data are compared to models and analysed quantitatively, evaluating the first four moments (mean, standard deviation, skewness, and kurtosis). The shape evolution of the measured multiplicity distributions is studied in terms of KNO variables and it is found that none of the considered models reproduces the measurements. This paper also reports on the average charged-particle multiplicity, normalised by the average number of participating nucleon pairs, as a function of the collision energy. The multiplicity results are then compared to measurements made in proton–proton and nucleus–nucleus collisions across a wide range of collision energies.more » « less
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Correlations between event-by-event fluctuations of anisotropic flow harmonics are measured in Pb-Pb collisions at a center-of-mass energy per nucleon pair of 5.02 TeV, as recorded by the ALICE detector at the LHC. This study presents correlations up to the hexagonal flow harmonic , which was measured for the first time. The magnitudes of these higher-order correlations are found to vary as a function of collision centrality and harmonic order. These measurements are compared to viscous hydrodynamic model calculations with EKRT initial conditions and to the iEBE-VISHNU model with initial conditions. The observed discrepancies between the data and the model calculations vary depending on the harmonic combinations. Due to the sensitivity of model parameters estimated with Bayesian analyses to these higher-order observables, the results presented in this work provide new and independent constraints on the initial conditions and transport properties in theoretical models used to describe the system created in heavy-ion collisions.more » « less
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A<sc>bstract</sc> ThepT-differential cross section ofωmeson production in pp collisions at$$ \sqrt{s} $$ = 13 TeV at midrapidity (|y| <0.5) was measured with the ALICE detector at the LHC, covering an unprecedented transverse-momentum range of 1.6< pT<50 GeV/c. The meson is reconstructed via theω→π+π−π0decay channel. The results are compared with various theoretical calculations: PYTHIA8.2 with the Monash 2013 tune overestimates the data by up to 50%, whereas good agreement is observed with Next-to-Leading Order (NLO) calculations incorporatingωfragmentation using a broken SU(3) model. Theω/π0ratio is presented and compared with theoretical calculations and the available measurements at lower collision energies. The presented data triples thepTranges of previously available measurements. A constant ratio ofCω/π0= 0.578 ± 0.006 (stat.) ± 0.013 (syst.) is found above a transverse momentum of 4 GeV/c, which is in agreement with previous findings at lower collision energies within the systematic and statistical uncertainties.more » « less
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