Azimuthal angular correlations between heavy-flavour decay electrons and charged hadrons in pp collisions at $\sqrt{s} = 2.76$ TeV in ALICE

TL;DR

This paper measures azimuthal angular correlations between electrons from heavy-flavour decays and charged hadrons in proton-proton collisions at 2.76 TeV to understand the contributions of charm and beauty hadrons.

Contribution

It presents the first measurement of electron-hadron azimuthal correlations in pp collisions at this energy, using ALICE data and PYTHIA simulations to distinguish charm and beauty contributions.

Findings

Electrons from heavy-flavour decays are correlated with charged hadrons.

PYTHIA simulations help estimate B-hadron decay contributions.

Results aid understanding of heavy-quark production in pp collisions.

Abstract

In ultra-relativistic heavy-ion collisions heavy quarks (charm and beauty) are produced in hard scattering processes and thus carry relevant information on the properties of the created hot and dense medium. Heavy-flavour hadrons can be measured using electrons from their semileptonic decay channels. The relative contribution of charm and beauty hadrons can be estimated from the study of the near side azimuthal angular correlations between these electrons and charged hadrons. We present the measurement of azimuthal angular correlations between electrons and charged hadrons in pp collisions at 2.76 TeV measured with ALICE at the LHC. Electrons are identified using the Electromagnetic Calorimeter and the Time Projection Chamber and the charged hadrons are identified using the Time Projection Chamber. The azimuthal angular correlation distributions from PYTHIA simulations are used to extract the relative contribution from B-hadron decays to the yield of electrons from heavy-flavour decays up to $p_\textrm{t}$ = 10 GeV/c.