Transverse momentum spectra and nuclear modification factors of charged particles in Xe–Xe collisions at sNN=5.44TeV

Transverse momentum ($p_T$ ) spectra of charged particles at mid-pseudorapidity in Xe–Xe collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\text{NN}}}=5.44\text{TeV}$ measured with the ALICE apparatus at the Large Hadron Collider are reported. The kinematic range $0.15<p_T<50\mathrm{GeV}/c$ and $\left|\eta \right|<0.8$ is covered. Results are presented in nine classes of collision centrality in the 0–80% range. For comparison, a pp reference at the collision energy of $\sqrt{s}=5.44$ TeV is obtained by interpolating between existing pp measurements at $\sqrt{s}=5.02$ and 7 TeV. The nuclear modification factors in central Xe–Xe collisions and Pb–Pb collisions at a similar center-of-mass energy of $\sqrt{s_{\text{NN}}}=5.02$ TeV, and in addition at 2.76 TeV, at analogous ranges of charged particle multiplicity density $〈d{N}_{\mathrm{ch}}/d\eta 〉$ show a remarkable similarity at $p_T>10$ $\mathrm{GeV}/c$. The centrality dependence of the ratio of the average transverse momentum $〈p_T〉$ in Xe–Xe collisions over Pb–Pb collision at $\sqrt{s}=5.02$ TeV is compared to hydrodynamical model calculations.