Differential cross sections of charged particles in inelastic pp collisions as a function of $p_{\rm T}$ have been measured at $\sqrt{s}=$ 0.9, 2.76 and 7 TeV at the LHC. The $p_{\rm T}$ spectra are compared to NLO-pQCD calculations. Though the differential cross section for an individual $\sqrt{s}$ cannot be described by NLO-pQCD, the relative increase of cross section with $\sqrt{s}$ is in agreement with NLO-pQCD. Based on these measurements and observations, procedures are discussed to construct pp reference spectra at $\sqrt{s} =$ 2.76 and 5.02 TeV up to $p_{\rm T}$ = 50 GeV/$c$ as required for the calculation of the nuclear modification factor in nucleus-nucleus and proton-nucleus collisions.

Event-by-event fluctuations of the mean transverse momentum of charged particles produced in pp collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 0.9, 2.76 and 7 TeV, and Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 2.76 TeV are studied as a function of the charged-particle multiplicity using the ALICE detector at the LHC. Dynamical fluctuations indicative of correlated particle emission are observed in all systems. The results in pp collisions show little dependence on collision energy. The Monte Carlo event generators PYTHIA and PHOJET are in qualitative agreement with the data. Peripheral Pb-Pb data exhibit a similar multiplicity dependence as that observed in pp. In central Pb-Pb, the results deviate from this trend, featuring a significant reduction of the fluctuation strength. The results in Pb--Pb are in qualitative agreement with previous measurements in Au-Au at lower collision energies and with expectations from models that incorporate collective phenomena.

The average transverse momentum $\langle p_{\rm T}\rangle$ versus the charged-particle multiplicity $N_{\rm ch}$ was measured in p-Pb collisions at a collision energy per nucleon-nucleon pair $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}=5.02$ TeV and in pp collisions at collision energies of $\sqrt{s}=0.9$, 2.76, and 7 TeV in the kinematic range $0.15<p_{\rm T}<10.0$ GeV/$c$ and $|\eta|<0.3$ with the ALICE apparatus at the LHC. These data are compared to results in Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}=2.76$ TeV at similar charged-particle multiplicities. In pp and p-Pb collisions, a strong increase of $\langle p_{\rm T}\rangle$ with $N_{\rm ch}$ is observed, which is much stronger than that measured in Pb-Pb collisions. For pp collisions, this could be attributed, within a model of hadronizing strings, to multiple-parton interactions and to a final-state color reconnection mechanism. The data in p-Pb and Pb-Pb collisions cannot be described by an incoherent superposition of nucleon-nucleon collisions and pose a challenge to most of the event generators.

We present the measurements of particle pair yields per trigger particle obtained from di-hadron azimuthal correlations in pp collisions at $\sqrt{s} = 0.9$, $2.76$, and $7$ TeV recorded with the ALICE detector. The yields are studied as a function of the charged particle multiplicity. Taken together with the single particle yields the pair yields provide information about parton fragmentation at low transverse momenta, as well as on the contribution of multiple parton interactions to particle production. Data are compared to calculations using the PYTHIA6, PYTHIA8, and PHOJET event generators.

We present measurements of Underlying Event observables in pp collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 0.9 and 7 TeV. The analysis is performed as a function of the highest charged-particle transverse momentum $p_{\rm T, LT}$ in the event. Different regions are defined with respect to the azimuthal direction of the leading (highest transverse momentum) track: Toward, Transverse and Away. The Toward and Away regions collect the fragmentation products of the hardest partonic interaction. The Transverse region is expected to be most sensitive to the Underlying Event activity. The study is performed with charged particles above three different $p_{\rm T}$ thresholds: 0.15, 0.5 and 1.0 GeV/$c$. In the Transverse region we observe an increase in the multiplicity of a factor 2-3 between the lower and higher collision energies, depending on the track $p){\rm T}$ threshold considered. Data are compared to Pythia 6.4, Pythia 8.1 and Phojet. On average, all models considered underestimate the multiplicity and summed $p_{\rm T}$ in the Transverse region by about 10-30%.

Measurements of the sphericity of primary charged particles in minimum bias proton--proton collisions at $\sqrt{s}=0.9$, 2.76 and 7 TeV with the ALICE detector at the LHC are presented. The observable is linearized to be collinear safe and is measured in the plane perpendicular to the beam direction using primary charged tracks with $p_{\rm T}\geq0.5$ GeV/c in $|\eta|\leq0.8$. The mean sphericity as a function of the charged particle multiplicity at mid-rapidity ($N_{\rm ch}$) is reported for events with different $p_{\rm T}$ scales ("soft" and "hard") defined by the transverse momentum of the leading particle. In addition, the mean charged particle transverse momentum versus multiplicity is presented for the different event classes, and the sphericity distributions in bins of multiplicity are presented. The data are compared with calculations of standard Monte Carlo event generators. The transverse sphericity is found to grow with multiplicity at all collision energies, with a steeper rise at low $N_{\rm ch}$, whereas the event generators show the opposite tendency. The combined study of the sphericity and the mean $p_{\rm T}$ with multiplicity indicates that most of the tested event generators produce events with higher multiplicity by generating more back-to-back jets resulting in decreased sphericity (and isotropy). The PYTHIA6 generator with tune PERUGIA-2011 exhibits a noticeable improvement in describing the data, compared to the other tested generators.

We present the first wide-range measurement of the charged-particle pseudorapidity density distribution, for different centralities (the 0-5%, 5-10%, 10-20%, and 20-30% most central events) in Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}} = 2.76$ TeV at the LHC. The measurement is performed using the full coverage of the ALICE detectors, $-5.0 < \eta < 5.5$, and employing a special analysis technique based on collisions arising from LHC "satellite" bunches. We present the pseudorapidity density as a function of the number of participating nucleons as well as an extrapolation to the total number of produced charged particles ($N_{\rm ch} = 17165 \pm 772$ for the 0-5% most central collisions). From the measured ${\rm d}N_{\rm ch}/{\rm d}\eta$ distribution we derive the rapidity density distribution, ${\rm d}N_{\rm ch}/{\rm d}y$, under simple assumptions. The rapidity density distribution is found to be significantly wider than the predictions of the Landau model. We assess the validity of longitudinal scaling by comparing to lower energy results from RHIC. Finally the mechanisms of the underlying particle production are discussed based on a comparison with various theoretical models.

Measurements of the production of forward high-energy pi0 mesons from transversely polarized proton collisions at \sqrt{s}=200 GeV are reported. The cross section is generally consistent with next-to-leading order perturbative QCD calculations. The analyzing power is small at x_F below about 0.3, and becomes positive and large at higher x_F, similar to the trend in data at \sqrt{s}<=20 GeV. The analyzing power is in qualitative agreement with perturbative QCD model expectations. This is the first significant spin result seen for particles produced with p_T>1 GeV/c at a polarized proton collider.

We report the measurement of charged $D^*$ mesons in inclusive jets produced in proton-proton collisions at a center of mass energy $\sqrt{s}$ = 200 GeV with the STAR experiment at RHIC. For $D^{*}$ mesons with fractional momenta $0.2 < z < 0.5$ in inclusive jets with 11.5 GeV mean transverse energy, the production rate is found to be $N(D^{*+}+D^{*-})/N(\mathrm{jet}) = 0.015 \pm 0.008 (\mathrm{stat}) \pm 0.007 (\mathrm{sys})$. This rate is consistent with perturbative QCD evaluation of gluon splitting into a pair of charm quarks and subsequent hadronization.

We report the first three-particle coincidence measurement in pseudorapidity ($\Delta\eta$) between a high transverse momentum ($p_{\perp}$) trigger particle and two lower $p_{\perp}$ associated particles within azimuth $\mid$$\Delta\phi$$\mid$$&lt;$0.7 in $\sqrt{{\it s}_{NN}}$ = 200 GeV $d$+Au and Au+Au collisions. Charge ordering properties are exploited to separate the jet-like component and the ridge (long-range $\Delta\eta$ correlation). The results indicate that the particles from the ridge are uncorrelated in $\Delta\eta$ not only with the trigger particle but also between themselves event-by-event. In addition, the production of the ridge appears to be uncorrelated to the presence of the narrow jet-like component.