Soft QCD results at the LHC with ALICE: focus on small collision systems

High-energy hadronic collisions are dominated by soft interactions and the description of these processes relies on phenomenological models. Recent measurements at the LHC [1–3] show collective-like effects in pp and p–Pb collisions. However, so far no evidence for jet quenching in small systems [4] has been observed. In popular event generators like PYTHIA8 [5] the observed effects in small systems are only reproduced when novel final-state interactions (color ropes) are introduced. In EPOS-LHC [6], a qualitative description of the effects is done by the inclusion of a core (QGP) contribution in small systems. The soft QCD measurements in small systems provide important constraints to the event generators and provide insights into the recent measurements of collective-like effects. In this contribution, we discuss the recent soft QCD results in small collision systems from ALICE, which include the light flavor hadron production, underlying event measurements and multi-differential studies using event shape observables.