Production of light-flavor hadrons in pp collisions at $$\sqrt{s}~=~7\text { and }\sqrt{s} = 13 \, \text { TeV} $$ s = 7 and s = 13 TeV

The production of $$\pi ^{\pm }$$ , $$\mathrm{K}^{\pm }$$ , $$\mathrm{K}^{0}_{S}$$ , $$\mathrm{K}^{*}(892)^{0}$$ , $$\mathrm{p}$$ , $$\phi (1020)$$ , $$\Lambda $$ , $$\Xi ^{-}$$ , $$\Omega ^{-}$$ , and their antiparticles was measured in inelastic proton–proton (pp) collisions at a center-of-mass energy of $$\sqrt{s}$$ = 13 TeV at midrapidity ( $$|y|<0.5$$ ) as a function of transverse momentum ( $$p_{\mathrm{T}}$$ ) using the ALICE detector at the CERN LHC. Furthermore, the single-particle $$p_{\mathrm{T}}$$ distributions of $$\mathrm{K}^{0}_{S}$$ , $$\Lambda $$ , and $$\overline{\Lambda }$$ in inelastic pp collisions at $$\sqrt{s} = 7$$  TeV are reported here for the first time. The $$p_{\mathrm{T}}$$ distributions are studied at midrapidity within the transverse momentum range $$0\le p_{\mathrm{T}}\le 20$$ GeV/c, depending on the particle species. The $$p_{\mathrm{T}}$$ spectra, integrated yields, and particle yield ratios are discussed as a function of collision energy and compared with measurements at lower $$\sqrt{s}$$ and with results from various general-purpose QCD-inspired Monte Carlo models. A hardening of the spectra at high $$p_{\mathrm{T}}$$ with increasing collision energy is observed, which is similar for all particle species under study. The transverse mass and $$x_{\mathrm{T}}\equiv 2p_{\mathrm{T}}/\sqrt{s}$$ scaling properties of hadron production are also studied. As the collision energy increases from $$\sqrt{s}$$ = 7–13 TeV, the yields of non- and single-strange hadrons normalized to the pion yields remain approximately constant as a function of $$\sqrt{s}$$ , while ratios for multi-strange hadrons indicate enhancements. The $$p_\mathrm{{T}}$$ -differential cross sections of $$\pi ^{\pm }$$ , $$\mathrm {K}^{\pm }$$ and $$\mathrm {p}$$ ( $$\overline{\mathrm{p}}$$ ) are compared with next-to-leading order perturbative QCD calculations, which are found to overestimate the cross sections for $$\pi ^{\pm }$$ and $$\mathrm{p}$$ ( $$\overline{\mathrm{p}}$$ ) at high $$p_\mathrm{{T}}$$ .