Measurement of D${}^0$, D${}^{+}$, D${}^{\ast +}$ and D${}_{\mathrm{s}}^{+}$ production in Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{{\mathbf{s}}_{\mathrm{NN}}}=5.02$ TeV

Abstract

We report measurements of the production of prompt D${}^0$, D${}^{+}$, D${}^{\ast +}$ and D${}_{\mathrm{s}}^{+}$ mesons in Pb-Pb collisions at the centre-of-mass energy per nucleon-nucleon pair $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}=5.02$ TeV, in the centrality classes 0-10%, 30-50% and 60-80%. The D-meson production yields are measured at mid-rapidity ($|y|<0.5$) as a function of transverse momentum ($p_{\mathrm{T}}$). The $p_{\mathrm{T}}$ intervals covered in central collisions are: $1<p_{\mathrm{T}}<50$ Gev/$c$ for D${}^0$, $2<p_{\mathrm{T}}<50$ GeV/$c$ for D${}^{+}$, $3<p_{\mathrm{T}}<50$ GeV/$c$ for D${}^{\ast +}$, and $4<p_{\mathrm{T}}<16$ GeV/$c$ for D${}_{\mathrm{s}}^{+}$ mesons. The nuclear modification factors ($R_{\mathrm{AA}}$) for non-strange D mesons (D${}^0$, D${}^{+}$, D${}^{\ast +}$) show minimum values of about 0.2 for $p_{\mathrm{T}}$ = 6-10 GeV/$c$ in the most central collisions and are compatible within uncertainties with those measured at $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}=2.76$ TeV. For D${}_{\mathrm{s}}^{+}$ mesons, the values of $R_{\mathrm{AA}}$ are larger than those of non-strange D mesons, but compatible within uncertainties. In central collisions the average $R_{\mathrm{AA}}$ of non-strange D mesons is compatible with that of charged particles for $p_{\mathrm{T}}>8$ GeV/$c$, while it is larger at lower $p_{\mathrm{T}}$. The nuclear modification factors for strange and non-strange D mesons are also compared to theoretical models with different implementations of in-medium energy loss.

35 pages, 10 captioned figures, 2 tables, authors from page 25, published, figures at http://aliceinfo.cern.ch/ArtSubmission/node/4251