Light meson nuclear modification factor in p-Pb collisions over an unprecedented p_T range with ALICE

Light neutral meson differential invariant cross section and nuclear modification factor measurements have been carried out with the ALICE detector at the CERN LHC in pp collisions at √s = 8 TeV and p-Pb collisions at √s_NN = 8.16 TeV. The analysis combines results from several partially independent reconstruction techniques where the π⁰ and η meson decay photons were detected with the electromagnetic calorimeter, EMCal, the photon spectrometer, PHOS, or via reconstruction of e⁺e⁻ pairs from conversions in the ALICE detector material using the central tracking system. The neutral pion measurement reaching a p_T of 200 GeV/c poses as the highest measured identified particle spectrum to date while the η meson is measured to an unprecedented p_T of 50 GeV/c. The spectra are found to be generally overestimated by NLO pQCD calculations. The nuclear modification factors of both mesons exhibit a suppression for p_T < 10 GeV/c which is stronger compared to previous measurements at √s_NN = 5.02 TeV and consistent with CGC and cold nuclear matter energy loss calculations. For p_T > 10 GeV/c, R_pPb is consistent with unity and theory predictions.