Measurement of azimuthal correlations of D mesons and charged particles in pp collisions at $\sqrt{s}=7$ TeV and p-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}=5.02$ TeV

TL;DR

This study measures azimuthal correlations between D mesons and charged particles in proton-proton and proton-lead collisions at the LHC, comparing experimental data with Monte Carlo simulations to understand jet properties.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed comparison of D meson-charged particle correlations in pp and p-Pb collisions, validating Monte Carlo models against experimental data.

Findings

Correlation peak properties are similar in pp and p-Pb collisions.

Monte Carlo simulations accurately describe the observed correlations.

Jet-related observables are consistent across different collision systems.

Abstract

The azimuthal correlations of D mesons and charged particles were measured with the ALICE detector in pp collisions at $\sqrt{s}=7$ TeV and p-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}=5.02$ TeV at the Large Hadron Collider. D$^0$, D$^+$, and D$^{*+}$ mesons and their charge conjugates with transverse momentum $3<p_{\rm T}<16$ GeV/$c$ and rapidity in the nucleon-nucleon centre-of-mass system $|y_{\rm cms}|<0.5$ (pp collisions) and $-0.96<y_{\rm cms}<0.04$ (p-Pb collisions) were correlated to charged particles with $p_{\rm T}>0.3$ Gev/$c$. The properties of the correlation peak induced by the jet containing the D meson, described in terms of the yield of charged particles in the peak and peak width, are compatible within uncertainties between the two collision systems, and described by Monte-Carlo simulations based on the PYTHIA, POWHEG and EPOS 3 event generators.