Neutral pion production at midrapidity in pp and Pb–Pb collisions at sNN=2.76TeV

Invariant yields of neutral pions at midrapidity in the transverse momentum range 0.6<pT<12GeV/ c measured in Pb–Pb collisions at sNN=2.76 TeV are presented for six centrality classes. The pp reference spectrum was measured in the range 0.4<pT<10GeV/ c at the same center-of-mass energy. The nuclear modification factor, RAA , shows a suppression of neutral pions in central Pb–Pb collisions by a factor of up to about 8-10 for 5≲pT≲7GeV/ c. The presented measurements are compared with results at lower center-of-mass energies and with theoretical calculations.