The ALICE experiment at LHC

The ALICE experiment is designed to study the physics of strongly interacting matter and the Quark Gluon Plasma in heavy-ion collisions at LHC. After a short survey of the tracking and particle indentification capabilities provided by the instrumental ensemble, the physics programme and performance of ALICE are described, starting with the “bulk” observables (from low and intermediate pT hadron measurements). The novel opportunities offered at the LHC regime by hard probes (jets and photons, open heavy flavors and quarkonia) are then examined.