Production of charged pions, kaons and protons at large transverse momenta in pp and Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 2.76 TeV

Abstract

Transverse momentum spectra of $\pi^{\pm}, K^{\pm}$ and $p(\bar{p})$ up to $p_T$ = 20 GeV/c at mid-rapidity, |y| $\le$ 0.8, in pp and Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 2.76 TeV have been measured using the ALICE detector at the LHC. At intermediate $p_T$ (2-8 GeV/c) an enhancement of the proton-to-proton ratio, (p + $\bar{p})/(\pi^+ + \pi^-$), with respect to pp collisions is observed and the ratio reaches 0.80 in central Pb-Pb collisions. The measurement of the nuclear modification factors for $\pi^{\pm}, K^{\pm}$ and $p(\bar{p})$ indicates that within the systematic and statistical uncertainties they are the same at high $p_T$ (> 10 GeV/c), suggesting that the chemical composition of leading particles from jets in the medium is similar to that of vacuum jets.