Speaker
Description
The interaction of heavy quarks with the quark-gluon plasma (QGP) significantly influences their azimuthal distribution and transverse momentum ($p_{\mathrm{T}}$) spectrum, making azimuthal anisotropy coefficients ($v_n$) and nuclear modification factors ($R_{AA}$) essential tools for studying QGP properties, as they reveal collective flow and energy loss mechanisms of heavy quarks. In this talk, we present the first measurements of the elliptic ($v_2$) and triangular ($v_3$) flow coefficients of $D_{s}^{\pm}$ mesons in lead-lead (PbPb) collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 5.02 TeV, using the CMS experiment. The measurements, performed as a function of transverse momentum across various centrality classes, set a new standard of precision at this energy, expanding the kinematic range compared to previous studies. The broader kinematic coverage and the first-ever $v_3$ measurement of $D_{s}^{\pm}$ mesons provide new insights into charm quark flow generation mechanisms and the impact of hadronization on flow. We compare the flow of $D_{s}^{\pm}$ mesons with that of $D^{0}$ mesons to investigate the potential effect of strange quark hadronization. These results also offer a unique opportunity to explore the influence of initial-state effects on heavy quark dynamics. Additionally, comparison with theoretical models provides critical validation of the underlying physics mechanisms governing these processes.
