B-meson Nuclear Modification Factor and $\mathbf{v_2(p_T)}$ in a Strongly Coupled Plasma in $\mathbf{Pb+Pb}$ Collisions at $\mathbf{\sqrt{s_{NN}}=2.76}$ TeV and $\mathbf{\sqrt{s_{NN}}=5.5}$ TeV

TL;DR

This paper predicts B-meson suppression and elliptic flow in a strongly coupled quark-gluon plasma using AdS/CFT, highlighting the impact of flow coupling on high-momentum anisotropy and addressing existing experimental puzzles.

Contribution

It introduces a novel AdS/CFT-based approach to predict B-meson suppression and flow in heavy-ion collisions at LHC energies, including systematic uncertainty estimates.

Findings

Coupling energy loss to flow significantly increases v2 at high momenta.

Predictions suggest large v2 values up to ~25 GeV/c, potentially resolving the RAA and v2 puzzle.

Systematic uncertainties due to parameter mapping and diffusion coefficient form are quantified.

Abstract

We present predictions for the suppression of B-mesons using AdS/CFT techniques assuming a strongly coupled quark-gluon plasma at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=2.76$ TeV for central collisions and $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=5.5$ TeV for various centrality classes. We provide estimates of the systematic theoretical uncertainties due to 1) the mapping of QCD parameters to those in $\mathcal N = 4$ SYM and 2) the exact form of the momentum dependence of the diffusion coefficient predicted by AdS/CFT. We show that coupling energy loss to flow increases $v_2$ substantially out to surprisingly large momenta, on the order of $\sim 25$ GeV/c, thus pointing to a possible resolution of the $R_{AA}$ and $v_2$ puzzle for light hadrons.