Heavy-flavor production in pp and Pb-Pb collisions at LHC with ALICE

TL;DR

This paper presents measurements of open charm hadron production in proton-proton and lead-lead collisions at the LHC using the ALICE detector, providing insights into heavy-flavor production and nuclear modifications in high-energy nuclear collisions.

Contribution

It reports new experimental results on open charm production and nuclear modification factors in pp and Pb-Pb collisions at LHC energies, utilizing advanced reconstruction and identification techniques.

Findings

Measurement of open charm hadron yields in pp and Pb-Pb collisions.

Observation of nuclear modification factors indicating medium effects.

Comparison with QCD calculations to understand heavy-flavor production.

Abstract

We report recent results from the ALICE experiment the Large Hadron Collider on open charmed hadron production in pp collisions at $\sqrt{s} = 2.76$ and 7 TeV, and Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{\mathrm{s}_{_{\mathrm{NN}}}} = 2.76$ TeV. Open charmed hadrons are kinematically fully reconstructed in the hadronic decay channels \DtoKpi, \DtoKpipi, and \DstartoDpi %$D^0\rightarrow K^-\pi^+$, $D^+\rightarrow K^-\pi^+ \pi^+$, and $D^{*+} \rightarrow D^0 (K^-\pi^+) + \pi^+$ and identified through their invariant mass. Combinatorial background is minimized by selecting a displaced vertex topology. Inclusive charm and beauty production is measured by detecting electrons (muons) from semi-leptonic decays of open charmed and beauty hadrons in the central (forward) region. Comparison to results from state-of-the-art QCD calculations is given. First results on nuclear modifications factors in Pb--Pb collisions from hadronic and semi-leptonic decays are presented.