Measurement of azimuthal correlations between D mesons and charged hadrons with ALICE at the LHC

TL;DR

This paper studies azimuthal correlations between D mesons and charged hadrons in different collision systems at the LHC to understand charm quark energy loss and hadronization modifications in quark-gluon plasma.

Contribution

It presents the first measurements of D meson-charged hadron azimuthal correlations in pp and p-Pb collisions at LHC energies, providing essential references for heavy-ion collision analysis.

Findings

Correlation patterns in pp and p-Pb collisions analyzed

Insights into charm production and fragmentation processes

Found potential cold nuclear matter effects

Abstract

The comparison of angular correlations between charmed mesons and charged hadrons produced in pp, p-Pb and Pb-Pb collisions can give insight into the mechanisms through which charm quarks lose energy in a QGP medium, produced in ultra-relativistic heavy-ion collisions, and can help to recognize possible modifications of their hadronization induced by the presence of the QGP. The analysis of pp and p-Pb data and the comparison with predictions from pQCD calculations, besides constituting the necessary reference for interpreting Pb-Pb data, can provide relevant information on charm production and fragmentation processes. In addition, possible differences between the results from pp and p-Pb collisions can give information on the presence of cold nuclear matter effects, affecting the charm production and hadronization in the latter collision system. A study of azimuthal correlations between D$^0$, D$^+$, and D$^{*+}$ mesons and charged hadrons in pp collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 7 TeV and p-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}$ = 5.02 TeV are presented. D mesons were reconstructed from their hadronic decays at central rapidity in the transverse-momentum range $3 \leq p_{\rm T}^{\rm D} \leq 16$ GeV/$c$ and were correlated to charged particles reconstructed in the pseudorapidity range $|\eta| < 0.8$. Perspectives for the measurement in Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}$ = 2.76 TeV will also be presented.