Energy dependence of φ(1020) production at mid-rapidity in pp collisions with ALICE at the LHC

Abstract

Hadronic resonances are unique tools to investigate the interplay of re-scattering and regeneration effects during the hadronization phase in heavy-ion collisions. Measurements in small collision systems provide a necessary baseline for heavy-ion data, help to tune pQCD inspired event generators and give insight into the search for the onset of collective effects. As the phi meson has a longer lifetime compared to other resonances, it is expected that its production would be much less affected by regeneration and re-scattering processes. We report on measurements of phi meson production in minimum bias pp collisions at different beam energies and as a function of charged particle multiplicity with the ALICE detector at the LHC, The results include the transverse momentum (p(T)) distributions of phi as well as the particle yield ratios. Finally, we have also studied the effective strangeness content by comparing our results to theoretical calculations.