Charged particle production in Pb-Pb and p-Pb collisions at ALICE

Global event observables are of fundamental importance in characterizing the properties of the strongly interacting medium created in heavy-ion collisions. The ALICE experiment at LHC measured charged particle multiplicity distributions in Pb-Pb collisions at √ sNN = 2.76 TeV in a wide pseudo-rapidity range (−5 < η < 5.5) exploiting different techniques. The production of high transverse momentum particles in Pb-Pb relative to pp is studied to characterize the in-medium energy loss. The pseudorapidity distribution of charged particles and the nuclear modification factor for Pb-Pb collisions at √ sNN = 2.76 TeV and for p-Pb collisions at √ sNN = 5.02 TeV are discussed. The ALICE results are compared to experimental results at lower energies and to theoretical predictions.