Production of $${\pi ^0}$$ and $$\eta $$ mesons up to high transverse momentum in pp collisions at 2.76 TeV
The invariant differential cross sections for inclusive π 0 and η mesons at midrapidity were measured in pp collisions at √s=2.76 TeV for transverse momenta 0.4 < p T < 40 GeV/c and 0.6 < p T < 20 GeV/c, respectively, using the ALICE detector. This large range in p T was achieved by combining various analysis techniques and different triggers involving the electromagnetic calorimeter (EMCal). Particularly, a new single-cluster, shower-shape based method was developed for the identification of high-p T neutral pions, which exploits that the showers originating from their decay photons overlap in the EMCal. Above 4 GeV/c, the measured crossmore »