Study of azimuthal correlations between D mesons and charged particles with the ALICE experiment

TL;DR

This paper investigates azimuthal correlations between D mesons and charged particles in proton-proton and proton-lead collisions at high energies, providing insights into charm quark interactions and future measurements in lead-lead collisions.

Contribution

It presents the first detailed analysis of D meson-charged particle azimuthal correlations at LHC energies and discusses future prospects for Pb-Pb collisions after detector upgrades.

Findings

Correlation patterns observed in pp and p-Pb collisions.

Methodology for reconstructing D mesons and charged particles.

Future measurement prospects in Pb-Pb collisions.

Abstract

A study of azimuthal correlations between D$^0$, D$^+$, and D$^{*+}$ and charged particles in pp collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 7 TeV and p-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}$ = 5.02 TeV is presented. D mesons were reconstructed from their hadronic decays at central rapidity ($|y| < 0.5$) in the transverse momentum range $3 \leq p_{\rm T}^{\rm D} \leq 16$ GeV/$c$ and they were correlated with charged particles reconstructed in the pseudorapidity range $|\eta| < 0.8$. Perspectives for the measurement in Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}$ = 5.5 TeV after the ALICE upgrade are presented as well.