# Measurement of the B+/- meson nuclear modification factor in PbPb collisions at sqrt(s[NN]) = 5.02 TeV

## TL;DR

This paper measures the production of B+/- mesons in lead-lead collisions at 5.02 TeV, finding significant suppression compared to proton-proton collisions, consistent with quark-gluon plasma effects.

## Contribution

First measurement of B+/- meson nuclear modification factor at 5.02 TeV in PbPb collisions using CMS data, providing insights into beauty quark energy loss in quark-gluon plasma.

## Key findings

- Approximately twofold suppression of B+/- production in PbPb vs pp collisions.
- Results align with models of beauty quark diffusion and energy loss.
- Data covers transverse momentum range of 7 to 50 GeV/c.

## Abstract

The differential production cross sections of B+/- mesons are measured via the exclusive decay channels B+/- to J/psi K+/- to mu+ mu- K+/- as a function of transverse momentum in pp and PbPb collisions at a center-of-mass energy sqrt(s[NN]) = 5.02 TeV per nucleon pair with the CMS detector at the LHC. The pp (PbPb) dataset used for this analysis corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 28.0 inverse picobarns (351 inverse microbarns). The measurement is performed in the B+/- meson transverse momentum range of 7 to 50 GeV/c, in the rapidity interval abs(y) < 2.4. In this kinematic range, a strong suppression of the production cross section by about a factor of two is observed in the PbPb system in comparison to the expectation from pp reference data. These results are found to be roughly compatible with theoretical calculations incorporating beauty quark diffusion and energy loss in a quark-gluon plasma.