Energy dependence of the transverse momentum distributions of charged particles in pp collisions measured by ALICE

Abstract

Differential cross sections of charged particles in inelastic pp collisions as a function of <i>p</i>_T have been measured at [Formula: see text] at the LHC. The <i>p</i>_T spectra are compared to NLO-pQCD calculations. Though the differential cross section for an individual [Formula: see text] cannot be described by NLO-pQCD, the relative increase of cross section with [Formula: see text] is in agreement with NLO-pQCD. Based on these measurements and observations, procedures are discussed to construct pp reference spectra at [Formula: see text] up to <i>p</i>_T=50 GeV/<i>c</i> as required for the calculation of the nuclear modification factor in nucleus-nucleus and proton-nucleus collisions.