Centrality dependence of nuclear suppression of D mesons in $p$+Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 5.02 TeV

TL;DR

This study compares theoretical models with ALICE experimental data on D meson suppression in p+Pb collisions at 5.02 TeV, highlighting the strengths and limitations of each model in describing centrality-dependent nuclear effects.

Contribution

It provides a detailed comparison of NLO pQCD and AMPT models against experimental data, identifying their respective accuracies and discrepancies in describing D meson suppression.

Findings

NLO model with k_T broadening closely matches ALICE data.

AMPT shows strong centrality dependence but underestimates data.

Differences between models and data are analyzed and discussed.

Abstract

In this paper we have shown theoretical model comparisons with ALICE results for average D mesons (D$^0$, D$^+$, D$^{*+}$ and $D^+_s$) in $p$+Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 5.02 TeV for various centralities. Transport calculations of AMPT and calculations from heavy quark pQCD model, NLO(MNR) have been used for the study of $p_T$ dependent nuclear modification factors in terms of collision centrality ($\displaystyle{Q_{pPb}}$) and the central-to-peripheral ratios ($\displaystyle{Q_{cp}}$) of D mesons. It is found that NLO model with its parametrized $\displaystyle{k_T}$ broadening scheme produces results those closely match with the published D-meson data of $p$+Pb collisions from ALICE. Likewise AMPT transport calculation shows a strong centrality dependence in results but underestimates the experimental data. The differences of both models with experimental data have been discussed.