Abstract
The comparison of angular correlations between charmed mesons and charged hadrons produced in pp, p-Pb and Pb-Pb collisions can give insight into the mechanisms through which charm quarks lose energy in a QGP medium, produced in ultra-relativistic heavy-ion collisions, and can help to recognize possible modifications of their hadronization induced by the presence of the QGP. The analysis of pp and p-Pb data and the comparison with predictions from pQCD calculations, besides constituting the necessary reference for interpreting Pb-Pb data, can provide relevant information on charm production and fragmentation processes. In addition, possible differences between the results from pp and p-Pb collisions can give information on the presence of cold nuclear matter effects, affecting the charm production and hadronization in the latter collision system. A study of azimuthal correlations between D$^0$, D$^+$, and D$^{*+}$ mesons and charged hadrons in pp collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 7 TeV and p-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}$ = 5.02 TeV are presented. D mesons were reconstructed from their hadronic decays at central rapidity in the transverse-momentum range $3 \leq p_{\rm T}^{\rm D} \leq 16$ GeV/$c$ and were correlated to charged particles reconstructed in the pseudorapidity range $|\eta| < 0.8$. Perspectives for the measurement in Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}$ = 2.76 TeV will also be presented.
Highlights
For the measurement in ALICE [1] has measured pT-differential cross sections for D-meson production at central rapidity in pp [2,3,4] and Pb-Pb [5] collisions
A suppression of D-meson yields of a factor 4−5 was found in central Pb-Pb collisions for pT > 5 GeV/c with respect to cross sections measured in pp collisions and scaled by the nuclear overlap function
This feature can be attributed, at least partially, to the energy loss of charm quarks in the Quark Gluon Plasma formed in such collisions
Summary
ALICE [1] has measured pT-differential cross sections for D-meson production at central rapidity in pp [2,3,4] and Pb-Pb [5] collisions. A suppression of D-meson yields of a factor 4−5 was found in central Pb-Pb collisions for pT > 5 GeV/c with respect to cross sections measured in pp collisions and scaled by the nuclear overlap function This feature can be attributed, at least partially, to the energy loss of charm quarks in the Quark Gluon Plasma formed in such collisions. Further insight into this topic can be provided by the study of angular correlations between D mesons and unidentified charged hadrons in Pb-Pb collisions, where medium-induced modifications to charm fragmentation and hadronization and the dependence of the energy loss on the path length in the medium can be addressed. EPJ Web of Conferences effects and the search for long-range ridge-like structures in near and away side regions (“double ridge”), already observed in hadron-hadron correlations [6], in the heavy-flavour sector
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