Measurement of beauty-strange meson production in Pb$-$Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}} = 5.02$ TeV via non-prompt $\mathrm{D_s}^{+}$ mesons

TL;DR

This paper reports the first measurement of non-prompt D_s^+ meson production in Pb-Pb collisions at 5.02 TeV, revealing insights into beauty-hadron decay behavior and heavy-quark transport in quark-gluon plasma.

Contribution

It provides the first measurement of non-prompt D_s^+ mesons in heavy-ion collisions and compares their yields to prompt D_s^+ and non-prompt D^0 mesons, enhancing understanding of beauty-hadron decay in QGP.

Findings

Non-prompt D_s^+ R_AA ratios are higher than unity in 4-12 GeV/c p_T range.

Measured R_AA ratios are consistent with models of heavy-quark transport and hadronisation.

Statistical significance of observed differences is about 1.6-1.7 sigma.

Abstract

The production yields of non-prompt $\mathrm{D_s}^{+}$ mesons, namely $\mathrm{D_s}^{+}$ mesons from beauty-hadron decays, were measured for the first time as a function of the transverse momentum ($p_{\rm T}$) at midrapidity ($|y|<0.5$) in central and semi-central Pb$-$Pb collisions at a centre-of-mass energy per nucleon pair $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}=5.02$ TeV with the ALICE experiment at the LHC. The $\mathrm{D_s}^{+}$ mesons and their charge conjugates were reconstructed from the hadronic decay channel $\mathrm{D_s}^{+} \to \phi\pi^+$, with $\phi \to {\rm K}^-{\rm K}^+$, in the $4 < p_{\rm T}<36$ GeV/$c$ and $2 < p_{\rm T}<24$ GeV/$c$ intervals for the 0$-$10% and 30$-$50% centrality classes, respectively. The measured yields of non-prompt $\mathrm{D_s}^{+}$ mesons are compared to those of prompt $\mathrm{D_s}^{+}$ and non-prompt $\mathrm{D^0}$ mesons by calculating the ratios of the production yields in Pb$-$Pb collisions and the nuclear modification factor $R_\mathrm{AA}$. The ratio between the $R_\mathrm{AA}$ of non-prompt $\mathrm{D_s}^{+}$ and prompt $\mathrm{D_s}^{+}$ mesons, and that between the $R_\mathrm{AA}$ of non-prompt $\mathrm{D_s}^{+}$ and non-prompt $\mathrm{D^0}$ mesons in central Pb$-$Pb collisions are found to be on average higher than unity in the $4< p_{\rm T}<12$ GeV/$c$ interval with a statistical significance of about $1.6\,\sigma$ and $1.7\,\sigma$, respectively. The measured $R_\mathrm{AA}$ ratios are compared with the predictions of theoretical models of heavy-quark transport in a hydrodynamically expanding QGP that incorporate hadronisation via quark recombination.