Production of light-flavor hadrons in pp collisions at $\\sqrt{s}~=~7\\text { and }\\sqrt{s} = 13 \\, \\text { TeV} $

The production of $\\pi ^{\\pm }$, $\\mathrm{K}^{\\pm }$, $\\mathrm{K}^{0}_{S}$, $\\mathrm{K}^{*}(892)^{0}$, $\\mathrm{p}$, $\\phi (1020)$, $\\Lambda $, $\\Xi ^{-}$, $\\Omega ^{-}$, and their antiparticles was measured in inelastic proton–proton (pp) collisions at a center-of-mass energy of $\\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV at midrapidity ($|y|<0.5$) as a function of transverse momentum ($p_{\\mathrm{T}}$) using the ALICE detector at the CERN LHC. Furthermore, the single-particle $p_{\\mathrm{T}}$ distributions of $\\mathrm{K}^{0}_{S}$, $\\Lambda $, and $\\overline{\\Lambda }$ in inelastic pp collisions at $\\sqrt{s} = 7$ TeV are reported here for the first time. The $p_{\\mathrm{T}}$ distributions are studied at midrapidity within the transverse momentum range $0\\le p_{\\mathrm{T}}\\le 20$ GeV/c, depending on the particle species. The $p_{\\mathrm{T}}$ spectra, integrated yields, and particle yield ratios are discussed as a function of collision energy and compared with measurements at lower $\\sqrt{s}$ and with results from various general-purpose QCD-inspired Monte Carlo models. A hardening of the spectra at high $p_{\\mathrm{T}}$ with increasing collision energy is observed, which is similar for all particle species under study. The transverse mass and $x_{\\mathrm{T}}\\equiv 2p_{\\mathrm{T}}/\\sqrt{s}$ scaling properties of hadron production are also studied. As the collision energy increases from $\\sqrt{s}$ = 7–13 TeV, the yields of non- and single-strange hadrons normalized to the pion yields remain approximately constant as a function of $\\sqrt{s}$, while ratios for multi-strange hadrons indicate enhancements. The $p_\\mathrm{{T}}$-differential cross sections of $\\pi ^{\\pm }$, $\\mathrm {K}^{\\pm }$ and $\\mathrm {p}$ ($\\overline{\\mathrm{p}}$) are compared with next-to-leading order perturbative QCD calculations, which are found to overestimate the cross sections for $\\pi ^{\\pm }$ and $\\mathrm{p}$ ($\\overline{\\mathrm{p}}$) at high $p_\\mathrm{{T}}$.