Direct photon production in Pb–Pb collisions at s NN = 2.76 TeV
We studied the direct photon production at mid-rapidity in Pb-Pb collisions at √s NN = 2.76 TeV in the transverse momentum range 0.9 < p T < 14 GeV/c. Photons were detected with the highly segmented electromagnetic calorimeter PHOS and via conversions in the ALICE detector material with the e + e - pair reconstructed in the central tracking system. Our results of the two methods were combined and direct photon spectra were measured for the 0-20%, 20-40%, and 40-80% centrality classes. For all three classes, agreement was found with perturbative QCD calculations for p T greater than or similar to 5 GeV/c. Direct photon spectra down to p T approximate to 1 GeV/c could be extracted for the 20-40% and 0-20% centrality classes. Furthermore, the significance of the direct photon signal for 0.9 < p T < 2.1 GeV/c is 2.6 sigma for the 0-20% class. The spectrum in this p T range and centrality class can be described by an exponential with an inverse slope parameter of (297 ± 12 stat ± 41 syst ) MeV. State-of-the-art models for photon production in heavy-ion collisions agree with the data within uncertainties.