Production of muons from heavy-flavour hadron decays at high transverse momentum in Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}=5.02$ and 2.76 TeV

Abstract

Measurements of the production of muons from heavy-flavour hadron decays in Pb$-$Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}$ = $5.02$ and $2.76$ TeV using the ALICE detector at the LHC are reported. The nuclear modification factor $R_{\mathrm{AA}}$ at $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}$ = 5.02 TeV is measured at forward rapidity ($2.5<y<4$) as a function of transverse momentum $p_{\mathrm{T}}$ in central, semi-central, and peripheral collisions over a wide $p_{\mathrm{T}}$ interval, $3<p_{\mathrm{T}}<20$ GeV/$c$, in which muons from beauty-hadron decays are expected to take over from charm as the dominant source at high $p_{\mathrm{T}}$ ($p_{\mathrm{T}}>7$ GeV/$c$). The $R_{\mathrm{AA}}$ shows an increase of the suppression of the yields of muons from heavy-flavour hadron decays with increasing centrality. A suppression by a factor of about three is observed in the $10\%$ most central collisions. The $R_{\mathrm{AA}}$ at $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}$ = 5.02 is similar to that at 2.76 TeV. The precise $R_{\mathrm{AA}}$ measurements have the potential to distinguish between model predictions implementing different mechanisms of parton energy loss in the high-density medium formed in heavy-ion collisions. They place important constraints for the understanding of the heavy-quark interaction with the hot and dense QCD medium.

27 pages, 4 captioned figures, 1 table, authors from page 21, published version, figures at http://alice-publications.web.cern.ch/node/6693

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• Measurement of electrons from beauty-hadron decays in pp and Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}$ = 5.02 TeV
• Measurements of azimuthal anisotropies at forward and backward rapidity with muons in high-multiplicity p-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}=8.16$ TeV
• Inclusive heavy-flavour production at central and forward rapidity in Xe-Xe collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}=5.44$ TeV
• A comparative study of different approaches for heavy quark energy loss, based on the latest experimental data
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