Search for extreme electromagnetic fields through measurements of charm mesons flow harmonics in PbPb collisions at 5.02 TeV with the CMS detector

Abstract

In ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions, a very strong (on the order of 1016 T) and transient (lifetime on the order of 10−1 fm/c) electromagnetic (EM) field is expected to be generated inside the medium formed in the collision. This EM field, generated by the collision participants and spectators, is predicted to produce a difference in the νn harmonics for positive-and negative-charged particles, with the magnetic field mainly responsible for a splitting in rapidity-odd directed flow (ν1), and the Coulomb electric field leading to a charge-dependent splitting in the ν2 and average pT values of emitted particles. Due to the large mass, charm quarks are expected to be created very early in the collision, and thus have more chance of interacting with this strong EM field than light flavor hadrons. In this contribution, measurements of D0 (u‾c) and D‾0uc‾) mesons flow harmonics (ν2 and ν3) are presented as functions of rapidity (y), transverse momentum, and collision centrality for PbPb collisions at 5.02 TeV, using the large data samples collected by the CMS experiment during the LHC Run 2. The wide rapidity coverage (|y| < 2) of these new charm mesons measurements allow for a better understanding of the 3-dimensional evolution of the medium formed in heavy-ion collisions.