Particle identification in ALICE: a Bayesian approach

Abstract

We present a Bayesian approach to particle identification (PID) within the ALICE experiment. The aim is to more effectively combine the particle identification capabilities of its various detectors. After a brief explanation of the adopted methodology and formalism, the performance of the Bayesian PID ap- proach for charged pions, kaons and protons in the central barrel of ALICE is studied. PID is performed via measurements of specific energy loss (dE/dx) and time of flight. PID efficiencies and misidentifica- tion probabilities are extracted and compared with Monte Carlo simulations using high-purity samples of identified particles in the decay channels K0S → π−π+, φ → K−K+, and Λ → pπ− in p-Pb collisions at √sNN = 5.02TeV. In order to thoroughly assess the validity of the Bayesian approach, this method- ology was used to obtain corrected pT spectra of pions, kaons, protons, and D0 mesons in pp collisions at √ s = 7TeV. In all cases, the results using Bayesian PID were found to be consistent with previous measurements performed by ALICE using a standard PID approach. For the measurement of D0 → K−π+, it was found that a Bayesian PID approach gave a higher signal-to-background ratio and a similar or larger statistical significance when compared with standard PID selections, despite a reduced identification effi- ciency.