Inclusive electron spectrum from heavy-flavour decays in proton-proton collisions at [formula omitted] measured with ALICE at LHC

Abstract

We present the status of the analysis on heavy-flavour production in proton-proton collisions at s = 7 TeV via a measurement of their semileptonic decay spectrum at mid-rapidity. An important goal of QCD studies at the LHC is a precise understanding of the heavy-quark production cross section at the high energy frontier in terms of the pQCD framework. Furthermore, heavy quarks are an excellent probe of the hot matter produced in high energy nucleus-nucleus collisions. Establishing precision measurements in proton-proton collisions is a very important baseline for the interpretation of their behaviour in the Quark Gluon Plasma. We present first measurements of the inclusive spectrum of single electrons, using the excellent particle identification capabilities of the ALICE experiment. The subtraction of a cocktail describing photonic and other background sources, as well as an analysis of impact parameter distributions relative to the interaction vertex, are ongoing and will allow the isolation of electrons from heavy-flavour hadron decays.