Measurement of the D0 Meson Production in Pb–Pb and p–Pb Collisions

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xvii

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2. Introduction to the Physics of Ultra-Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collisions

   • Andrea Festanti

   Pages 1-22

3. Heavy-Flavour Probes in Heavy-Ion Collisions

   • Andrea Festanti

   Pages 23-49

4. The ALICE Experiment at the LHC

   • Andrea Festanti

   Pages 51-70

5. Experimental Observables

   • Andrea Festanti

   Pages 71-79

6. \(\mathrm{{D}}^\mathbf {0}\rightarrow \mathrm{{K}}^\mathbf {-}{\pi }^\mathbf {+}\) Decay Reconstruction

   • Andrea Festanti

   Pages 81-116

7. Systematic Uncertainties

   • Andrea Festanti

   Pages 117-145

8. Azimuthal Anisotropy of D\({^0}\) Production in Pb–Pb Collisions

   • Andrea Festanti

   Pages 147-157

9. \(\mathrm{D}^0\) Production in p–Pb Collisions

   • Andrea Festanti

   Pages 159-167

10. Conclusions

    • Andrea Festanti

    Pages 169-171

11. Back Matter

    Pages 173-174

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This thesis presents the first measurement of charmed D0 meson production relative to the reaction plane in Pb–Pb collisions at the center-of-mass energy per nucleon-nucleon collision of √sNN = 2.76 TeV. It also showcases the measurement of the D0 production in p–Pb collisions at √sNN = 5.02 TeV with the ALICE detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. The measurement of the D0 azimuthal anisotropy with respect to the reaction plane indicates that low- momentum charm quarks participate in the collective expansion of the high-density, strongly interacting medium formed in ultra-relativistic heavy-ion collisions, despite their large mass. This behavior can be explained by charm hadronization via recombination with light quarks from the medium and collisional energy loss. The measurement of the D0 production in p–Pb collisions is crucial to separate the effect induced by cold nuclear matter from the final- state effects induced by the hot medium formed in Pb–Pb collisions. The D0 production in p–Pb collisions is consistent with the binary collision scaling of the production in pp collisions, demonstrating that the modification of the momentum distribution observed in Pb–Pb collisions with respect to pp is predominantly induced by final-state effects such as the charm energy loss.

• Heavy-ion Collisions
• Quark-Gluon Plasma
• Charm Production
• D-meson Nuclear Modification Factor
• D-meson Elliptic Flow
• D-meson Multiplicity Dependence
• Parton Energy Loss
• Initial State Effects in Heavy-ion Collisions
• ALICE Experiment at the LHC

• Department of Physics, Università Degli Studi di Padova and INFN-Sezione di Padova, Padova, Italy

  Andrea Festanti

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