Beauty production in heavy-ion collisions with ALICE at the LHC

TL;DR

This paper presents detailed measurements of beauty quark production and behavior in heavy-ion collisions at the LHC, providing insights into energy loss, hadronisation, and thermalisation of beauty quarks in the quark-gluon plasma.

Contribution

It reports the first measurements of non-prompt D0 and D_s production, their nuclear modification factors, and elliptic flow, offering new constraints on beauty quark interactions in the medium.

Findings

Non-prompt D0 R_AA compared to prompt D0.

First measurements of non-prompt D_s production.

Non-prompt D mesons' elliptic flow constrains beauty quark thermalisation.

Abstract

In this contribution, the final measurements of the centrality dependence of the nuclear modification factor ($R_{\rm AA}$) of non-prompt $\rm D^0$ in Pb--Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\scriptscriptstyle \rm NN}}$ = 5.02 TeV will be presented. These measurements provide important constraints to the in-medium mass dependent of energy loss and hadronisation of the beauty quark. The $p_{\rm T}$-integrated non-prompt $\rm D^0$ $R_{\rm AA}$ will be presented for the first time and will be compared to the prompt $\rm D^0$ one. This comparison will shed light on possible different shadowing effects between charm and beauty quarks. In addition, the first measurements of non-prompt $\rm D_s$ production in central and semi-central Pb--Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\scriptscriptstyle \rm NN}}$ = 5.02 TeV will be discussed. The non-prompt $\rm D_s$ measurements provide additional information on the production and hadronisation of $\rm B_s$ mesons. Finally, the first measurement of non-prompt D-mesons elliptic flow in Pb--Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\scriptscriptstyle \rm NN}}$ = 5.02 TeV will also be discussed. This measurement can constrain the degree of thermalisation of beauty quarks in the hot and dense QCD medium.