Azimuthal angle correlations of muons produced via heavy-flavor decays in 5.02 TeV Pb+Pb and pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

ATLAS Collaboration

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Abstract

Angular correlations between heavy quarks provide a unique probe of the quark-gluon plasma created in ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions. Results are presented of a measurement of the azimuthal angle correlations between muons originating from semileptonic decays of heavy quarks produced in 5.02Β TeV Pb+Pb and 𝑝⁒𝑝 collisions at the LHC. The muons are measured with transverse momenta and pseudorapidities satisfying π‘πœ‡T>4  GeV and |πœ‚πœ‡|<2.4, respectively. The distributions of azimuthal angle separation ΔΦ for muon pairs having pseudorapidity separation |Ξ”β’πœ‚|>0.8, are measured in different Pb +Pb centrality intervals and compared to the same distribution measured in 𝑝⁒𝑝 collisions at the same center-of-mass energy. Results are presented separately for muon pairs with opposite-sign charges, same-sign charges, and all pairs. A clear peak is observed in all Ξ”β’πœ™ distributions at Ξ”β’πœ™βˆΌπœ‹, consistent with the parent heavy-quark pairs being produced via hard-scattering processes. The widths of that peak, characterized using Cauchy-Lorentz fits to the Ξ”β’πœ™ distributions, are found to not vary significantly as a function of Pb +Pb collision centrality and are similar for 𝑝⁒𝑝 and Pb +Pb collisions. This observation will provide important constraints on theoretical descriptions of heavy-quark interactions with the quark-gluon plasma.
Original languageEnglish
Article number202301
Pages (from-to)202301-1-202301-23
Number of pages23
JournalPhysical Review Letters
Volume132
Issue number20
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 17 May 2024
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

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