# Dielectron production in proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s} = 7$ TeV with ALICE

## TL;DR

This paper reports on the measurement of dielectron production in proton-proton collisions at 7 TeV using ALICE, analyzing sources, separating prompt and non-prompt contributions, and extracting heavy-flavor cross sections with model comparisons.

## Contribution

It provides detailed dielectron spectra measurements and separates prompt and non-prompt sources, offering insights into heavy-flavor production mechanisms at high energies.

## Key findings

- Successful separation of prompt and non-prompt dielectron sources.
- Extraction of charm and beauty cross sections from data.
- Observation of significant model dependence in heavy-flavor measurements.

## Abstract

The ALICE Collaboration measured dielectron production as a function of the invariant mass ($m_{\rm ee}$), the pair transverse momentum ($p_{\rm T,ee}$) and the pair distance of closest approach ($\rm DCA_{ee}$) in pp collisions at $\sqrt{s} = 7$ TeV. Prompt and non-prompt dielectron sources can be separated with the $\rm DCA_{ee}$, which will give the opportunity in heavy-ion collisions to identify thermal radiation from the medium in the intermediate-mass range dominated by contributions from open-charm and beauty hadron decays. The charm and beauty total cross sections are extracted from the data by fitting the spectra with two different MC generators, i.e. PYTHIA a leading order event generator and POWHEG a next-to-leading order event generator. Significant model dependences are observed, reflecting the sensitivity of this measurement to the heavy-flavour production mechanisms.