Neutral pion and η meson production at midrapidity in Pb-Pb collisions at s NN =2.76 TeV

Neutral pion and eta meson production in the transverse momentum range 1 < p(T) < 20 GeV/c have been measured at midrapidity by the ALICE experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in central and semicentral Pb-Pb collisions at root S-NN = 2.76 TeV. These results were obtained using the photon conversion method as well as the Photon Spectrometer (PHOS) and Electromagnetic Calorimeter detectors. The results extend the upper p(T) reach of the previous ALICE pi(0) measurements from 12 to 20 GeV/c and present the first measurement of eta meson production in heavy-ion collisions at the LHC. The eta/pi(0) ratio is similar for the two centralities and reaches at high p(T) a plateau value of 0.457 +/- 0.013(stat) +/- 0.018(syst) A suppression of similar magnitude for pi(0) and eta meson production is observed in Pb-Pb collisions with respect to their production in pp collisions scaled by the number of binary nucleon-nucleon collisions. We discuss the results in terms of Next to Leading Order (NLO) pQCD predictions and hydrodynamic models. The measurements show a stronger suppression than observed at lower center-of-mass energies in the p T range 6 < p(T) < 10 GeV/c. For p(T) < 3 GeV/c, hadronization models describe the pi(0) results while for the eta some tension is observed.