Erlangen 2026 – scientific programme
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HK: Fachverband Physik der Hadronen und Kerne
HK 40: Heavy-Ion Collisions and QCD Phases VI
HK 40.3: Talk
Thursday, March 19, 2026, 16:45–17:00, PHIL C 601
Measurement of π0 and η mesons in Pb–Pb collisions at √sNN = 5.36 TeV using ML-based photon identification — •Isabel Kantak for the ALICE Germany collaboration — Physikalisches Institut, Heidelberg, Germany
Neutral pions and η mesons serve as sensitive probes of the quark-gluon plasma (QGP) formed in heavy-ion collisions. In the low pT region, light mesons provide insight into hadronisation processes and the evolution of the QGP. High pT measurements, on the other hand, are essential for studying the mechanism of parton energy loss mechanism and the resulting suppression of light mesons in the QGP medium. Furthermore, precise measurements of π0 and η mesons are indispensable for direct-photon analyses, as they constitute the dominant sources of decay photons.
Photons are reconstructed via the Photon Conversion Method (PCM). A machine learning-based photon identification method has been implemented. The BDT method enhances photon purity without compromising efficiency, thereby improving statistical significance of the reconstructed meson spetra. In this contribution, I will discuss the performance of ML-based photon identification and the current status of π0 and η mesons in Pb–Pb collisions at √sNN = 5.36 TeV. I will present invariant yield measurements as a function of centrality and compare the results to those obtained with standard cut-based techniques.
Keywords: ALICE; Neutral mesons; Machine Learning; Photon conversion