Inclusive Open Charm Production in pp and Pb-Pb collisions with the ALICE Detector

TL;DR

This paper reports measurements of open charm production in proton-proton and lead-lead collisions at the LHC using the ALICE detector, providing insights into QCD processes and the properties of hot, dense nuclear matter.

Contribution

It presents the first measurements of D-meson nuclear modification factors in Pb-Pb collisions at 2.76 TeV, advancing understanding of charm quark behavior in quark-gluon plasma.

Findings

Charm production cross sections in pp collisions at 7 TeV and 2.76 TeV.

First measurement of D-meson nuclear modification factor in Pb-Pb collisions.

Results support the presence of parton energy loss in hot nuclear matter.

Abstract

ALICE is the dedicated heavy-ion experiment at the LHC. Its main physics goal is to study the properties of strongly-interacting matter at conditions of high energy density (>10 GeV/ fm^3) and high temperature (> 0.5 GeV) expected to be reached in central Pb-Pb collisions. Charm and beauty quarks are powerful tools to investigate this high density and strongly interacting state of matter since they are produced in initial hard scatterings that are therefore generated early in the system evolution and probe its hottest, densest stage. The measurement of the charm production cross sections in pp collisions provides an interesting insight into QCD processes and is crucial as a reference for heavy ion studies. We present open charm cross section measurements in pp collisions at \sqrt{s} = 7 TeV and \sqrt{s}=2.76 TeV in the central rapidity region. In addition, the first measurement of nuclear modification factor of D-meson in Pb-Pb collisions at \sqrt{s}= 2.76 TeV is shown.