Low mass vector meson production in pp and Pb-Pb collisions measured with ALICE at the LHC

Vector mesons are key probes of the hot and dense state of strongly interacting matter produced in heavy ion collisions. Their dileptonic decay channel is particularly suitable for these studies, since dileptons have negligible final state interactions in hadronic matter. In particular, strangeness production can be studied through the measurement of muon pairs coming from the decay of φ mesons. The ALICE apparatus at the LHC can access vector mesons produced at forward rapidity (2.5 < y < 4) through their decays in muon pairs. We present results on vector meson production in pp and Pb-Pb collisions at √S_NN = 2.76 TeV. The φ meson production cross section is measured in pp collisions. In Pb-Pb collisions, a measurement of the φ/(ρ + ω) ratio and of the 0 nuclear modification factor as a function of the collision centrality is obtained.