The Inner Tracking System is the ALICE detector closest to the beam axis. It
is composed of six layers of silicon detectors: two innermost layers of Silicon
Pixel Detectors (SPD), two intermediate layers of Silicon Drift Detectors (SDD)
and two outermost layers of Silicon Strip Detectors (SSD). The ITS can be used
as a standalone tracker in order to recover tracks that are not reconstructed
by the Time Projection Chamber (TPC) and to reconstruct low momentum particles
with ptβ down to 100 MeV/c. Particle identification in the ITS is performed
by measuring the energy loss signal in the SDD and SSD layers. The ITS allows
to extend the charged particle identification capability in the ALICE central
rapidity region at low ptβ: it is possible to separate Ο/K in the range
100 MeV/c <ptβ< 500 MeV/c and K/p in the range 200 MeV/c <ptβ<
800 MeV/c. The identification of hadron in the ITS will be discussed in detail,
different methods used to extract the ptβ spectra of Ο,K and p will
also be described.Comment: 2 pages, 2 figures, submitted as contribution to PLHC2011 conference
proceeding