Azimuthal angle correlations of muons produced via heavy-flavor decays in 5.02 TeV Pb+Pb and $pp$ collisions with the ATLAS detector

Abstract

Angular correlations between heavy-quarks provide a unique probe of the quark-gluon plasma created in ultra-relativistic heavy-ion collisions. Results are presented of a measurement of the azimuthal angle correlations between muons originating from semileptonic decays of heavy-quarks produced in 5.02 TeV Pb+Pb and $pp$ collisions at the LHC. The muons are measured with transverse momenta and pseudorapidities satisfying $p_{\mathrm{T}}^{\mu }>4$ GeV and $|{\eta }^{\mu }|<2.4$, respectively. The distributions of azimuthal angle separation, $\Delta \varphi$, for muon pairs having pseudorapidity separation $|\Delta \eta |>0.8$, are measured in different Pb+Pb centrality intervals and compared to the same distribution measured in $pp$ collisions at the same center-of-mass energy. Results are presented separately for muon pairs with opposite-sign charges, same-sign charges, and all pairs. A clear peak is observed in all $\Delta \varphi$ distributions at $\Delta \varphi \sim \pi$, consistent with the parent heavy-quark pairs being produced via hard-scattering processes. The widths of that peak, characterized using Cauchy-Lorentz fits to the $\Delta \varphi$ distributions, are found to not vary significantly as a function of Pb+Pb collision centrality and are similar for $pp$ and Pb+Pb collisions. This observation will provide important constraints on theoretical descriptions of heavy-quark interactions with the quark-gluon plasma.

arXiv comment33 pages in total, author list starting page 16, 4 figures, published as Phys.~Rev.~Lett.~132~(2024)~202301 All figures including auxiliary figures are available at https://atlas.web.cern.ch/Atlas/GROUPS/PHYSICS/PAPERS/HION-2022-19

References in corpus (60)

• An Introduction to PYTHIA 8.2
• A Brief Introduction to PYTHIA 8.1
• A general framework for implementing NLO calculations in shower Monte Carlo programs: the POWHEG BOX
• A New Method for Combining NLO QCD with Shower Monte Carlo Algorithms
• Matching NLO QCD computations with Parton Shower simulations: the POWHEG method
• Parton distributions for the LHC Run II
• Glauber Modeling in High Energy Nuclear Collisions
• Performance of the ATLAS Trigger System in 2015
• How Much do Heavy Quarks Thermalize in a Heavy Ion Collision?
• Muon reconstruction performance of the ATLAS detector in proton--proton collision data at $\sqrt{s}$=13 TeV
• Heavy-flavour and quarkonium production in the LHC era: from proton-proton to heavy-ion collisions
• nCTEQ15 - Global analysis of nuclear parton distributions with uncertainties in the CTEQ framework
• Heavy Quark Diffusion in Strongly Coupled $\mathbb{N}=4$ Yang Mills
• Heavy-Quark Probes of the Quark-Gluon Plasma at RHIC
• Heavy Quark Radiative Energy Loss in QCD Matter
• Nuclear Modification of Electron Spectra and Implications for Heavy Quark Energy Loss in Au+Au Collisions at sqrt(s_NN)=200 GeV
• Nonperturbative Heavy-Quark Diffusion in the Quark-Gluon Plasma
• Suppression of non-prompt J/psi, prompt J/psi, and Y(1S) in PbPb collisions at sqrt(sNN) = 2.76 TeV
• Heavy Quark Production in p+p and Energy Loss and Flow of Heavy Quarks in Au+Au Collisions at sqrt(s_NN)=200 GeV
• Observation of $D^0$ meson nuclear modifications in Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{{}_{\mathrm{NN}}}}$ = 200 GeV
• D meson elliptic flow in non-central Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}$ = 2.76TeV
• Nuclear modification factor of D${}^0$ mesons in PbPb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}=$ 5.02 TeV
• Transverse momentum dependence of D-meson production in Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}=2.76$ TeV
• Performance of the ATLAS Track Reconstruction Algorithms in Dense Environments in LHC Run 2
• Measurement of the nuclear modification factor for inclusive jets in Pb+Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}=5.02$ TeV with the ATLAS detector
• Competition of Heavy Quark Radiative and Collisional Energy Loss in Deconfined Matter
• Azimuthal anisotropy of D meson production in Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}=2.76$ TeV
• Open Heavy-Flavor Production in Heavy-Ion Collisions
• Azimuthal correlations of heavy quarks in Pb+Pb collisions at LHC ($\sqrt{s}=2.76$ TeV)
• Collisional energy loss of a fast heavy quark in a quark-gluon plasma
• Suppression and azimuthal anisotropy of prompt and nonprompt J/psi production in PbPb collisions at sqrt(s[NN]) = 2.76 TeV
• Open Charm and Beauty at Ultrarelativistic Heavy Ion Colliders
• Evidence of b-jet quenching in PbPb collisions at sqrt(s[NN]) = 2.76 TeV
• Measurement of prompt D${}^0$ meson azimuthal anisotropy in PbPb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}=$5.02 TeV
• Prompt and non-prompt $J/\psi$ and $\psi (2\mathrm{S})$ suppression at high transverse momentum in 5.02 TeV Pb+Pb collisions with the ATLAS experiment
• Measurement of the B+/- meson nuclear modification factor in PbPb collisions at sqrt(s[NN]) = 5.02 TeV
• Elliptic and triangular flow of heavy flavor in heavy-ion collisions
• Measurement of the azimuthal anisotropy of charged particles produced in $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}=5.02$ TeV Pb+Pb collisions with the ATLAS detector
• LHC jet suppression of light and heavy flavor observables
• Heavy quark jet quenching with collisional plus radiative energy loss and path length fluctuations
• nNNPDF2.0: Quark Flavor Separation in Nuclei from LHC Data
• Collisional Energy Loss of a Heavy Quark in an Anisotropic Quark-Gluon Plasma
• Observation of centrality-dependent acoplanarity for muon pairs produced via two-photon scattering in Pb+Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}=5.02$ TeV with the ATLAS detector
• Transverse-momentum and event-shape dependence of D-meson flow harmonics in Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=5.02$ TeV
• Measurements of the electron and muon inclusive cross-sections in proton-proton collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV with the ATLAS detector
• Dynamical collisional energy loss and transport properties of on- and off-shell heavy quarks in vacuum and in the Quark Gluon Plasma
• Exclusive dimuon production in ultraperipheral Pb+Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}=5.02$ TeV with ATLAS
• Studies of beauty suppression via nonprompt D${}^0$ mesons in PbPb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}=$ 5.02 TeV
• Centrality dependence of high-$p_{\mathrm{T}}$ D meson suppression in Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}$ = 2.76 TeV
• Measurement of azimuthal anisotropy of muons from charm and bottom hadrons in $pp$ collisions at $\sqrt{s}=13$ TeV with the ATLAS detector
• Measurement of azimuthal anisotropy of muons from charm and bottom hadrons in Pb+Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}=5.02$ TeV with the ATLAS detector
• Prompt and non-prompt $J/\psi$ elliptic flow in Pb+Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{{}_{\text{NN}}}}=5.02$ TeV with the ATLAS detector
• Precise determination of the B0s-B0sbar oscillation frequency
• Measurement of the suppression and azimuthal anisotropy of muons from heavy-flavor decays in Pb+Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}=2.76$ TeV with the ATLAS detector
• Tomography of the Quark Gluon Plasma by Heavy Quarks
• Measurement of electrons from beauty-hadron decays in p-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}=5.02$ TeV and Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}=2.76$ TeV
• Measurement of the nuclear modification factor of $b$-jets in 5.02 TeV Pb+Pb collisions with the ATLAS detector
• Measuring Momentum-Dependent Flow Fluctuations in Heavy-Ion Collisions
• Measurement of muon pairs produced via $\gamma \gamma$ scattering in non-ultraperipheral Pb+Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{{}_{\mathrm{NN}}}}=5.02$ TeV with the ATLAS detector
• Azimuthal correlations of heavy-flavor hadron decay electrons with charged particles in pp and p-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}$ = 5.02 TeV

Cited by in corpus (2)

• Heavy flavor angular correlations as a direct probe of the glasma
• The impact of glasma on heavy flavor azimuthal correlations and spectra