Measurement of beauty production via non-prompt D0 mesons in Pb-Pb collisions at $$ \sqrt{{\textrm{s}}_{\textrm{NN}}} $$ = 5.02 TeV
S. Acharya, D. Adamová, A. Adler, J. Adolfsson, G. Aglieri Rinella, M. Agnello, N. Agrawal, Z. Ahammed, S. Ahmad, S. U. Ahn, I. Ahuja, Zaenal Akbar, A. Akindinov, M. Al-Turany, S. N. Alam, D. Aleksandrov, B. Alessandro, H. M. Alfanda, R. Alfaro Molina, B. Ali, Y. Ali, A. Alici, N. Alizadehvandchali, A. Alkin, J. Alme, G. Alocco, T. Alt, I. Altsybeev, M. N. Anaam, C. Andrei, A. Andronic, V. Anguelov, F. Antinori, P. Antonioli, C. Anuj, N. Apadula, L. Aphecetche, H. Appelshäuser, S. Arcelli, R. Arnaldi, I. C. Arsene, M. Arslandok, A. Augustinus, R. Averbeck, S. Aziz, M. D. Azmi, A. Badalá, Y. W. Baek, X. Bai, R. Bailhache, Y. Bailung, R. Bala, A. Balbino, A. Baldisseri, Bartosz Baliś, D. Banerjee, Z. Banoo, R. Barbera, L. Barioglio, M. Barlou, G. G. Barnaföldi, L. S. Barnby, V. Barret, C. Bartels, K. Barth, E. Bartsch, F. Baruffaldi, N. Bastid, S. Basu, G. Batigne, D. Battistini, B. Batyunya, D. Bauri, J. L. Bazo Alba, I. G. Bearden, C. Beattie, P. Becht, I. Belikov, A. D. C. Bell Hechavarria, F. Bellini, R. Bellwied, S. Belokurova, V. Belyaev, G. Bencedi, S. Beolè, A. Bercuci, Y. Berdnikov, A. Berdnikova, L. Bergmann, M. G. Besoiu, L. Betev, P. P. Bhaduri, A. Bhasin, I. R. Bhat, M. A. Bhat, B. Bhattacharjee, L. Bianchi, N. Bianchi, J. Bielčík, J. Bielčíková
Abstract
A bstract The production of non-prompt D 0 mesons from beauty-hadron decays was measured at midrapidity (| y | < 0 . 5) in Pb-Pb collisions at a nucleon-nucleon center-of-mass energy of $$ \sqrt{{\textrm{s}}_{\textrm{NN}}} $$ <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:msqrt> <mml:msub> <mml:mi>s</mml:mi> <mml:mi>NN</mml:mi> </mml:msub> </mml:msqrt> </mml:math> = 5 . 02 TeV with the ALICE experiment at the LHC. Their nuclear modification factor ( R AA ), measured for the first time down to p T = 1 GeV /c in the 0–10% and 30–50% centrality classes, indicates a significant suppression, up to a factor of about three, for p T > 5 GeV /c in the 0–10% central Pb-Pb collisions. The data are described by models that include both collisional and radiative processes in the calculation of beauty-quark energy loss in the quark-gluon plasma, and quark recombination in addition to fragmentation as a hadronisation mechanism. The ratio of the non-prompt to prompt D 0 -meson R AA is larger than unity for p T > 4 GeV /c in the 0–10% central Pb-Pb collisions, as predicted by models in which beauty quarks lose less energy than charm quarks in the quark-gluon plasma because of their larger mass.