Abstract
The production of muons from heavy-flavour hadron decays in p–Pb collisions at sNN=5.02 TeV was studied for 2<pT<16 GeV/c with the ALICE detector at the CERN LHC. The measurement was performed at forward (p-going direction) and backward (Pb-going direction) rapidity, in the ranges of rapidity in the centre-of-mass system (cms) 2.03<ycms<3.53 and −4.46<ycms<−2.96, respectively. The production cross sections and nuclear modification factors are presented as a function of transverse momentum (pT). At forward rapidity, the nuclear modification factor is compatible with unity while at backward rapidity, in the interval 2.5<pT<3.5 GeV/c, it is above unity by more than 2σ. The ratio of the forward-to-backward production cross sections is also measured in the overlapping interval 2.96<|ycms|<3.53 and is smaller than unity by 3.7σ in 2.5<pT<3.5 GeV/c. The data are described by model calculations including cold nuclear matter effects.
Highlights
The study of ultra-relativistic heavy-ion collisions aims at investigating the properties of strongly-interacting matter under extreme conditions of temperature and energy density
This procedure is based on a Monte Carlo simulation using as input the pT and rapidity distributions of muons from beauty-hadron decays predicted by Fixed Order Next To Leading Log (FONLL) calculations [58]
All the aforementioned uncertainties are added in quadrature to obtain the total uncertainty on the background subtraction, which results in an uncertainty on the pT-differential cross section and nuclear modification factor of muons from heavy-flavour hadron decays of 1–7% (1–15%) at forward rapidity (Table 1)
Summary
The study of ultra-relativistic heavy-ion collisions aims at investigating the properties of strongly-interacting matter under extreme conditions of temperature and energy density. An enhancement (suppression) of muons from heavy-flavour hadron decays was measured at backward (forward) rapidity [45]. The recent measurement of azimuthal correlations between electrons from heavy-flavour hadron decays at midrapidity and muons from heavy-flavour hadron decays at forward rapidity [46] shows a suppression of the yield of electron–muon pairs with φ = π , suggesting that CNM effects modify the cccorrelations. The mid-rapidity nuclear modification factors of prompt D mesons [50] and electrons from heavy-flavour hadron and beauty-hadron decays [51,52] measured by the ALICE Collaboration are found consistent with unity. Comparisons with model calculations to extract relevant information concerning CNM effects are discussed These measurements cover forward (2.03 < ycms < 3.53, p-going direction) and backward (−4.46 < ycms < −2.96, Pb-going direction) rapidity regions. The results are compared with model calculations which include CNM effects
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