Speaker
Description
In heavy-ion collisions the energy loss of heavy quarks is an interesting quantity for the investigation of the properties of the Quark-Gluon Plasma (QGP). Heavy quarks are produced almost exclusively in the initial hard interactions. Thus, they can interact with the surrounding matter throughout its evolution. A comparison of measurements in Pb--Pb and p--Pb collisions helps to separate initial- and final-state effects. The excellent particle identification properties of the ALICE detector and the large branching ratio ($\approx10\%$) of hadrons containing heavy quarks to a final state containing electrons suggest a measurement of heavy flavours using semielectronic decay channels. In the analyses presented here, the contributions from charm and beauty to the electrons from heavy-flavour hadron decays are separated statistically using their different track impact parameter distributions and empirical estimations of the background. This approach makes use of the larger decay length ($c\tau\approx500\,\mathrm{\mu m}$) of hadrons with beauty quarks compared to those with charm quarks. The current results of the analyses of p--Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\textrm{NN}}}=5.02\,\mathrm{TeV}$ and Pb--Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\textrm{NN}}}=2.76\mathrm{\, TeV}$ are presented.
