Strangeness production in ALICE

The ALICE experiment at the LHC has measured the production of strange and multi-strange hadrons both in Pb–Pb and pp collisions at unprecedented beam energies. Transverse momentum spectra at mid-rapidity for K⁰_S mesons, Λ, and Ω⁻ baryons and their anti-particles in Pb–Pb collisions at TeV are presented in different centrality intervals. Particles are reconstructed via their weak decay topologies into charged particles only over a wide momentum range, exploiting the tracking and particle identification capabilities of the ALICE detector. The corresponding production yields are compared with those observed in pp collisions and lower energy heavy-ion reactions. In particular, results on baryon-to-meson ratio, strangeness enhancements, elliptic flow and nuclear modification factors are discussed. The comparison of strange particle spectra in pp collisions at TeV with PYTHIA Perugia-2011 predictions is also presented.