Heavy-flavour measurements in proton-proton collisions with ALICE at the LHC

Abstract

The measurement of heavy-flavour production in proton-proton collisions serves as a precise test for perturbative QCD. Furthermore it provides the reference for the corresponding studies in heavy-ion collisions. The measurements are performed by ALICE in hadronic channels as well as in the semi-electronic decay channel at midrapidity, profiting from the excellent particle identification capabilities and the good impact parameter resolution, and in the semi-muonic channel at forward rapidity. In particular, electrons from beauty hadron decays can be measured at low pT by selecting electrons with a large distance to the primary vertex or by using electron-hadron correlations. Furthermore ALICE provides the unique opportunity to study the D meson yields as function of the multiplicity. We present heavy- flavour measurements in the various channels in pp collisions at √s = 7 TeV and √s = 2.76 TeV, and discuss the results by comparing them to perturbative QCD calculations.