Resonances as Probes of Heavy-Ion Collisions at ALICE

Abstract

Hadronic resonances serve as unique probes in the study of the hot and dense nuclear matter produced in heavy-ion collisions. Properties of the hadronic phase of the collision can be extracted from measurements of the suppression of resonance yields. A comparison of the transverse-momentum spectra of the phi(1020) meson and the proton (which have similar masses) can be used to study particle production mechanisms. Resonance measurements in pp collisions provide input for tuning QCD-inspired particle production models and serve as reference measurements for other collision systems. Measurements of resonances in p-Pb collisions allow nuclear effects in the absence of a hot and dense final state to be studied. The ALICE Collaboration has measured resonances in pp, p-Pb, and Pb-Pb collisions. These measurements will be discussed and compared to results from other experiments and to theoretical models.Comment: 4 Pages, 1 figure, Proceedings of Hot Quarks 2014, Las Negras, Spain, 21-28 September 2014, to be published in Journal of Physics: Conference Serie