Very high momentum particle identification at the LHC

The anomalies observed at RHIC for the baryon — meson ratios have prompted a number of theoretical works on the nature of the hadrochemistry in the hadronisation stage of the pp collisions and in the evolution of the dense system formed in heavy ion collisions. Although the predictions differ in the theoretical approach, generally a substantial increase in the baryon production is predicted in the range 10–30 GeV/c. We will present the possibilities of a gas ring imaging Cherenkov detector of limited acceptance which would be able to identify track-by-track protons until 24 GeV/c for the ALICE experiment.