Measurement of the suppression and azimuthal anisotropy of muons from heavy-flavor decays in Pb+Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}} = 2.76$ TeV with the ATLAS detector

TL;DR

This paper reports on measurements of muons from heavy-flavor decays in Pb+Pb and pp collisions at 2.76 TeV, revealing suppression and azimuthal anisotropy indicative of quark-gluon plasma effects.

Contribution

First measurement of heavy-flavor muon suppression and azimuthal anisotropy in Pb+Pb collisions at 2.76 TeV with detailed centrality and pT dependence.

Findings

Heavy-flavor muon R_AA is about 0.35 in central collisions.

Azimuthal coefficients v2, v3, v4 show systematic variation with centrality.

Suppression is independent of pT within uncertainties.

Abstract

ATLAS measurements of the production of muons from heavy-flavor decays in $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}} = 2.76$ TeV Pb+Pb collisions and $\sqrt{s} = 2.76$ TeV $pp$ collisions at the LHC are presented. Integrated luminosities of 0.14 $\mathrm{nb}^{-1}$ and 570 $\mathrm{nb}^{-1}$ are used for the Pb+Pb and $pp$ measurements, respectively, which are performed over the muon transverse momentum range $4 < p_{\mathrm{T}} < 14$ GeV and for five Pb+Pb centrality intervals. Backgrounds arising from in-flight pion and kaon decays, hadronic showers, and mis-reconstructed muons are statistically removed using a template-fitting procedure. The heavy-flavor muon differential cross-sections and per-event yields are measured in $pp$ and Pb+Pb collisions, respectively. The nuclear modification factor $R_{\mathrm{AA}}$ obtained from these is observed to be independent of $p_{\mathrm{T}}$, within uncertainties, and to be less than unity, which indicates suppressed production of heavy-flavor muons in Pb+Pb collisions. For the 10% most central Pb+Pb events, the measured $R_{\mathrm{AA}}$ is approximately 0.35. The azimuthal modulation of the heavy-flavor muon yields is also measured and the associated Fourier coefficients $v_n$ for $n =$ 2, 3 and 4 are given as a function of $p_{\mathrm{T}}$ and centrality. They vary slowly with $p_{\mathrm{T}}$ and show a systematic variation with centrality which is characteristic of other anisotropy measurements, such as that observed for inclusive hadrons. The measured $R_{\mathrm{AA}}$ and $v_n$ values are also compared with theoretical calculations.