Energy dependence of $\varphi$ meson production at forward rapidity in pp collisions at the LHC

Abstract

The production of $\varphi$ mesons has been studied in pp collisions at LHC energies with the ALICE detector via the dimuon decay channel in the rapidity region $2.5<y<4$. Measurements of the differential cross section ${\mathrm{d}}^2\sigma /\mathrm{d}y\mathrm{d}{p}_{\mathrm{T}}$ are presented as a function of the transverse momentum ($p_{\mathrm{T}}$) at the center-of-mass energies $\sqrt{s}=5.02$, 8 and 13 TeV and compared with the ALICE results at midrapidity. The differential cross sections at $\sqrt{s}=5.02$ and 13 TeV are also studied in several rapidity intervals as a function of $p_{\mathrm{T}}$, and as a function of rapidity in three $p_{\mathrm{T}}$ intervals. A hardening of the $p_{\mathrm{T}}$-differential cross section with the collision energy is observed, while, for a given energy, $p_{\mathrm{T}}$ spectra soften with increasing rapidity and, conversely, rapidity distributions get slightly narrower at increasing $p_{\mathrm{T}}$. The new results, complementing the published measurements at $\sqrt{s}=2.76$ and 7 TeV, allow one to establish the energy dependence of $\varphi$ meson production and to compare the measured cross sections with phenomenological models. None of the considered models manages to describe the evolution of the cross section with $p_{\mathrm{T}}$ and rapidity at all the energies.

22 pages, 7 captioned figures, 2 tables, authors from page 17, published version, figures at http://alice-publications.web.cern.ch/node/7058

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