/ nucl-ex CERN-PH-EP-2014-083

Azimuthal anisotropy of D meson production in Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 2.76 TeV

Pages: 36

Abstract: The production of the prompt charmed mesons $D^0$, $D^+$ and $D^{*+}$ relative to the reaction plane was measured in Pb-Pb collisions at a centre-of-mass energy per nucleon--nucleon collision of $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 2.76 TeV with the ALICE detector at the LHC. D mesons were reconstructed via their hadronic decays at central rapidity in the transverse momentum ($p_T$) interval 2-16 Gev/c. The azimuthal anisotropy is quantified in terms of the second coefficient $v_2$ in a Fourier expansion of the D meson azimuthal distribution, and in terms of the nuclear modification factor $R_{AA}$, measured in the direction of the reaction plane and orthogonal to it. The $v_2$ coefficient was measured with three different methods and in three centrality classes in the interval 0-50%. A positive $v_2$ is observed in mid-central collisions (30-50% centrality class), with an mean value of $0.204_{-0.036}^{+0.099}$(tot.unc.) in the interval 2 < $p_T$ < 6 Gev/c, which decreases towards more central collisions (10-30% and 0-10% classes). The positive $v_2$ is also reflected in the nuclear modification factor, which shows a stronger suppression in the direction orthogonal to the reaction plane for mid-central collisions. The measurements are compared to theoretical calculations of charm quark transport and energy loss in high-density strongly-interacting matter at high temperature. The models that include substantial elastic interactions with an expanding medium provide a good description of the observed anisotropy. However, they are challenged to simultaneously describe the strong suppression of high-$p_T$ yield of D mesons in central collisions and their azimuthal anisotropy in non-central collisions.

Note: 36 pages, 11 captioned figures, 3 tables, submitted to Phys. Rev. C

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