Elliptic flow measurement of heavy-flavour decay electrons in Pb-Pb collisions at 2.76 TeV with ALICE

  • The elliptic flow of heavy-flavour decay electrons is measured at midrapidity |eta| < 0.8 in three centrality classes (0-10%, 10-20% and 20-40%) of Pb-Pb collisions at sqrt(sNN) = 2.76TeV with ALICE at LHC. The collective motion of the particles inside the medium which is created in the heavy-ion collisions can be analyzed by a Fourier decomposition of the azimuthal anisotropic particle distribution with respect to the event plane. Elliptic flow is the component of the collective motion characterized by the second harmonic moment of this decomposition. It is a direct consequence of the initial geometry of the collision which is translated to a particle number anisotropy due to the strong interactions inside the medium. The amount of elliptic flow of low-momentum heavy quarks is related to their thermalization with the medium, while high-momentum heavy quarks provide a way to assess the path-length dependence of the energy loss induced by the interaction with the medium. The heavy-quark elliptic flow is measured using a three-step procedure. First the v2 coefficient of the inclusive electrons is measured using the event-plane and scalar-product methods. The electron background from light flavours and direct photons is then simulated, calculating the decay kinematics of the electron sources which are initialised by their respective measured spectra. The final result of this work emerges by subtracting the background from the inclusive measurement. A significant elliptic flow is observed after this subtraction. Its value is decreasing from low to intermediate pT and from semi-central to central collisions. The results are described by model calculations with significant elastic interactions of the heavy quarks with the expanding strongly-interacting medium.

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Metadaten
Author:Theodor B. RascanuGND
URN:urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-441551
Place of publication:Frankfurt am Main
Referee:Harald AppelshäuserGND, Henner BüschingGND
Advisor:Harald Appelshäuser
Document Type:Doctoral Thesis
Language:English
Date of Publication (online):2017/04/28
Year of first Publication:2016
Publishing Institution:Universitätsbibliothek Johann Christian Senckenberg
Granting Institution:Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität
Date of final exam:2017/03/20
Release Date:2017/04/28
Page Number:152
HeBIS-PPN:402674359
Institutes:Physik / Physik
Dewey Decimal Classification:5 Naturwissenschaften und Mathematik / 53 Physik / 530 Physik
Sammlungen:Universitätspublikationen
Licence (German):License LogoDeutsches Urheberrecht