Measurement of azimuthal correlations between D mesons and charged hadrons with ALICE at the LHC

• Main Author: Colamaria Fabio
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: EDP Sciences 2014-01-01
• Series: EPJ Web of Conferences
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1051/epjconf/20148000034

The comparison of angular correlations between charmed mesons and charged hadrons produced in pp, p-Pb and Pb-Pb collisions can give insight into the mechanisms through which charm quarks lose energy in a QGP medium, produced in ultra-relativistic heavy-ion collisions, and can help to recognize possible modifications of their hadronization induced by the presence of the QGP. The analysis of pp and p-Pb data and the comparison with predictions from pQCD calculations, besides constituting the necessary reference for interpreting Pb-Pb data, can provide relevant information on charm production and fragmentation processes. In addition, possible differences between the results from pp and p-Pb collisions can give information on the presence of cold nuclear matter effects, affecting the charm production and hadronization in the latter collision system. A study of azimuthal correlations between D0, D+, and D*+ mesons and charged hadrons in pp collisions at √s = 7 TeV and p-Pb collisions at √sNN = 5.02 TeV are presented. D mesons were reconstructed from their hadronic decays at central rapidity in the transverse-momentum range 3 ≤ pTD ≤ 16 GeV/c and were correlated to charged particles reconstructed in the pseudorapidity range |η| < 0.8. Perspectives for the measurement in Pb-Pb collisions at √sNN = 2.76 TeV will also be presented.