Measurements of low-p$_{T}$ electrons from semileptonic heavy-flavour hadron decays at mid-rapidity in pp and Pb-Pb collisions at $ \sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}=2.76 $ TeV

• Published in: The journal of high energy physics Vol. 10
• Main Authors: Acharya, Shreyasi, Torales - Acosta, Fernando, Adamova, Dagmar, Adolfsson, Jonatan, Aggarwal, Madan Mohan, Aglieri Rinella, Gianluca, Agnello, Michelangelo, Agrawal, Neelima, Ahammed, Zubayer, Ahn, Sang Un, Aiola, Salvatore, Akindinov, Alexander, Al-Turany, Mohammad, Alam, Sk Noor, Silva de Albuquerque, Danilo, Aleksandrov, Dmitry, Alessandro, Bruno, Alfaro Molina, Jose Ruben, Ali, Yasir, Alici, Andrea, Alkin, Anton, Alme, Johan, Alt, Torsten, Altenkamper, Lucas, Altsybeev, Igor, Anaam, Mustafa Naji, Andrei, Cristian, Andreou, Dimitra, Andrews, Harry Arthur, Andronic, Anton, Angeletti, Massimo, Anguelov, Venelin, Anson, Christopher Daniel, Anticic, Tome, Antinori, Federico, Antonioli, Pietro, Anwar, Rafay, Apadula, Nicole, Aphecetche, Laurent Bernard, Appelshaeuser, Harald, Arcelli, Silvia, Arnaldi, Roberta, Arnold, Oliver Werner, Arsene, Ionut Cristian, Arslandok, Mesut, Augustinus, Andre, Averbeck, Ralf Peter, Azmi, Mohd Danish, Badala, Angela, Baek, Yong Wook, Bagnasco, Stefano, Bailhache, Raphaelle Marie, Bala, Renu, Baldisseri, Alberto, Ball, Markus, Baral, Rama Chandra, Barbano, Anastasia Maria, Barbera, Roberto, Barile, Francesco, Barioglio, Luca, Barnafoldi, Gergely Gabor, Barnby, Lee Stuart, Ramillien Barret, Valerie, Bartalini, Paolo, Barth, Klaus, Bartsch, Esther, Bastid, Nicole, Basu, Sumit, Batigne, Guillaume, Batyunya, Boris, Batzing, Paul Christoph, Bazo Alba, Jose Luis, Bearden, Ian Gardner, Beck, Hans, Bedda, Cristina, Behera, Nirbhay Kumar, Belikov, Iouri, Bellini, Francesca, Bello Martinez, Hector, Bellwied, Rene, Espinoza Beltran, Lucina Gabriela, Belyaev, Vladimir, Bencedi, Gyula, Beole, Stefania, Bercuci, Alexandru, Berdnikov, Yaroslav, Berenyi, Daniel, Bertens, Redmer Alexander, Berzano, Dario, Betev, Latchezar, Bhaduri, Partha Pratim, Bhasin, Anju, Bhat, Inayat Rasool, Bhatt, Himani, Bhattacharjee, Buddhadeb, Bhom, Jihyun, Bianchi, Antonio, Bianchi, Livio, Bianchi, Nicola, Bielcik, Jaroslav
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Springer 2018
• Subjects: High Energy Physics - Experiment; Nuclear Experiment; Physics; heavy quark: production; transverse momentum; scaling; experimental results; 2760 GeV-cms/nucleon; parton: distribution function; semileptonic decay; electron: yield; Heavy Ion Experiments; hadronization; heavy ion: scattering; ALICE; hadron: decay; nucleon nucleon: scattering; p p: scattering
• ISSN: 1126-6708; 1029-8479
• DOI: 10.1007/JHEP10(2018)061

Transverse-momentum (p$_{T}$) differential yields of electrons from semileptonic heavy-flavour hadron decays have been measured in the most central (0–10%) and in semi-central (20–40%) Pb–Pb collisions at $ \sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}=2.76 $ TeV. The corresponding production cross section in pp collisions has been measured at the same energy with substantially reduced systematic uncertainties with respect to previously published results. The modification of the yield in Pb–Pb collisions with respect to the expectation from an incoherent superposition of nucleon-nucleon collisions is quantified at mid-rapidity (|y| < 0.8) in the p$_{T}$ interval 0.5–3 GeV/c via the nuclear modification factor, R$_{AA}$. This paper extends the p$_{T}$ reach of the R$_{AA}$ measurement towards significantly lower values with respect to a previous publication. In Pb–Pb collisions the p$_{T}$-differential measurements of yields at low p$_{T}$ are essential to investigate the scaling of heavy-flavour production with the number of binary nucleon-nucleon collisions. Heavy-quark hadronization, a collective expansion and even initial-state effects, such as the nuclear modification of the Parton Distribution Function, are also expected to have a significant effect on the measured distribution.