Heavy Flavour Measurements in pp and Pb--Pb Collisions with the ALICE Experiment at LHC

TL;DR

This paper presents measurements of heavy flavour particles in proton-proton and lead-lead collisions at the LHC, providing insights into the early stages of quark-gluon plasma formation through various decay channels.

Contribution

It reports new experimental results on heavy flavour production in Pb--Pb and pp collisions at different energies, expanding understanding of quark-gluon plasma properties.

Findings

Heavy flavour production is sensitive to the early collision phases.

Results include electrons, muons, and charm hadron decays.

Data show modifications in heavy quarkonia yields in Pb--Pb collisions.

Abstract

Heavy flavour is mainly produced during the initial hard partonic interactions in a heavy ion collision, and is well-suited to probe the early phases of the evolution of the system. This contribution will focus on Pb--Pb analyses at a centre-of-mass energy per nucleon pair of 2.76 TeV, with some hints at the $\pp$ data at 7 and 2.76 TeV. Results of open heavy flavour analyses will be shown for various decay channels, including electrons, muons, and hadronic charm decays, together with results obtained for heavy quarkonia at both central and forward rapidities.