Study of light neutral mesons production at LHC energies

Abstract

The main goal of the ALICE experiment is to study the physics of strongly inter acting matter, focusing on the properties of the quark-gluon plasma (QGP). In this thesis, we study the invariant differential cross-section of light neutral mesons (π0 and η) using the models EPOS 1.99, EPOS-LHC, DPMJET-III and Sibyll 2.3d, and compare the results to the measurements of the ALICE collaboration at mid rapidity for √s = 2.76 TeV, 7 TeV and 8 TeV. The percentage of agreement between the data and the Monte Carlo events is also estimated. Some models match the ALICE data, while others have little or no agreement. The study sheds light on the level to which the jet quenching and strangeness enhancement phenomenon can provide information for understanding the quark-gluon plasma and how well the underlying physics models of the gener ators can explain it. The phenomenological models used here can also provide a baseline for comparison with future proton-proton measurements at higher energies and heavy-ion collisions. The latest results in proton-proton (pp) collisions have revealed a decreasing trend in differential cross-section of η and π0, whereas an in creasing trend in the η/π0 meson yield ratio. The results may guide us, how to modify the models and their settings to describe the real data