On the thermalisation of leptons from heavy-flavour meson decay in pp collisions

TL;DR

This study investigates the thermalization behavior of muons from heavy-flavour meson decay in proton-proton collisions at 13 TeV, revealing a subset that follows Boltzmann statistics, unlike electrons.

Contribution

It demonstrates a novel method to classify muons based on their light front variable, identifying a thermalized group following Boltzmann statistics in simulated collisions.

Findings

Muons can be grouped by their light front variable in simulated pp collisions.

A subset of muons exhibits Boltzmann-like isotropic angular distribution.

Electrons do not show similar thermalization effects.

Abstract

It is shown that the $\mu^{\pm}$ originating from the decay of heavy-flavour mesons in the simulated proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s} = 13$ TeV using the PYTHIA 8 event generator can be made into two groups based on the value of their light front variable such that one among these two groups of $\mu^{\pm}$ follow the Boltzmann statistics with a nearly isotropic angular distribution. A similar effect is not observed for $e^{\pm}$ from the decay of heavy-flavour mesons in these collisions.