Centrality dependence of charged particle production at large transverse momentum in Pb–Pb collisions at <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" altimg="si1.gif" overflow="scroll"><mml:msqrt><mml:msub><mml:mrow><mml:mi>s</mml:mi></mml:mrow><mml:mrow><mml:mi mathvariant="normal">NN</mml:mi></mml:mrow></mml:msub></mml:msqrt><mml:mo>=</mml:mo><mml:mn>2.76</mml:mn><mml:mtext> </mml:mtext><mml:mtext>TeV</mml:mtext></mml:math>

The inclusive transverse momentum (p T ) distributions of primary charged particles are measured in the pseudo-rapidity range || < 0.8 as a function of event centrality in Pb-Pb collisions at s NN = 2.76 TeV with ALICE at the LHC. The data are presented in the p T range 0.15 < p T < 50 GeV/c for nine centrality intervals from 70-80% to 0-5%. The results in Pb-Pb are presented in terms of the nuclear modification factor R AA using a pp reference spectrum measured at the same collision energy. We observe that the suppression of high-p T particles strongly depends on event centrality. The yield is most suppressed in central collisions (0-5%) with R AA 0.13 at p T = 6-7 GeV/c. Above p T = 7 GeV/c, there is a significant rise in the nuclear modification factor, which reaches R AA 0.4 for p T > 30 GeV/c. In peripheral collisions (70-80%), only moderate suppression (R A A = 0.6-0.7) and a weak p T dependence is observed.