Measurement of the production of high-pT electrons from heavy-flavour hadron decays in Pb–Pb collisions at √sNN=2.76 TeV

Abstract

Electrons from heavy-flavour hadron decays (charm and beauty) were measured with the ALICE detector in Pb–Pbcollisions at a centre-of-mass of energy √sNN=2.76TeV. The transverse momentum (pT) differential production yields at mid-rapidity were used to calculate the nuclear modification factor RAAin the interval 3 <pT<18GeV/c. The RAAshows a strong suppression compared to binary scaling of pp collisions at the same energy (up to a factor of 4) in the 10% most central Pb–Pbcollisions. There is a centrality trend of suppression, and a weaker suppression (down to a factor of 2) in semi-peripheral (50–80%) collisions is observed. The suppression of electrons in this broad pTinterval indicates that both charm and beauty quarks lose energy when they traverse the hot medium formed in Pb–Pb collisions at LHC.