Identified charged hadron production measured with ALICE at the LHC

The ALICE experiment is the general-purpose heavy-ion experiment at the LHC which is optimized for the reconstruction and identification of particles over a broad momentum range, a unique feature among the four major LHC experiments. In this article, several results on identified charged hadron production are presented. These measurements depend critically on the excellent particle identification performance of the ALICE central barrel detectors which is reviewed briefly as well. Transverse momentum (image) distributions of image, image, p and image from Pb–Pb collisions at a center-of-mass energy of image are compared with corresponding measurements from Au–Au collisions at image at RHIC. The spectral shapes indicate a strong increase of the radial flow velocity with growing image. Integrated hadron yields at mid–rapidity are compared with corresponding measurements from RHIC. Particle yield ratios, including strange hadrons are discussed in terms of thermal model calculations. Nuclear modification factors image of identified charged hadrons have been measured as a function of image for the first time up to transverse momenta of 20 GeV/c.