Performance of the ALICE Zero Degree Calorimeters in Pb-Pb collisions at LHC

ALICE is the dedicated heavy-ion experiment at the LHC collider. The ALICE Zero Degree Calorimeters have been designed to measure the centrality and to monitor the LHC beam luminosity in A-A collisions. The ZDC system is made of two identical sets of forward hadronic calorimeters placed on both sides relative to the Interaction Point and it is complemented by two small electromagnetic calorimeters. In this paper the performance of these detectors in 2010 Pb-Pb data taking is discussed, focusing on the centrality determination and on the event selection capabilities of the ZDCs. Finally, the first measurement of cross sections for electromagnetic dissociation of Pb nuclei at √S_NN = 2.76 TeV with neutron emission is presented.