Event-by-event fluctuation studies in the ALICE experiment

Event-by-event (E-by-E) fluctuations are considered to be one of the possible indications that a phase transition from ordinary hadronic matter to a plasma of quarks and gluons has occurred, as it is expected to happen in ultra-relativistic heavy-ion collisions. In this article, the results of a study concerning the observability of E-by-E fluctuations for the ALICE experiment at the LHC collider at CERN is presented. In particular, an estimate of the E-by-E statistical sensitivity in the measurement of the inverse slope parameter from the transverse momentum spectra of hadrons and of their particle ratios is discussed. The analysis relies on the excellent performance of ALICE in terms of particle identification.