Speaker
Description
Measurements of open heavy-flavour production in p--Pb collisions at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) allow the study of cold-nuclear matter effects, such as shadowing, $k_T$ broadening and initial-state energy loss. Heavy quarks (charm and beauty) are a valuable probe for the Quark-Gluon Plasma created in Pb--Pb collisions, since they are produced in hard scattering processes in the initial stages of the collision.
The comparison between p--Pb and Pb--Pb collisions makes it possible to distinguish between cold- and hot-nuclear matter effects, the latter expected to be present in high-energy Pb--Pb collisions.
Besides providing a reference for p--Pb and Pb--Pb collisions, the measurement of the $\rm{D}^{*+}$ $p_T$-differential production cross section in pp collisions also provides an excellent test of next-to-leading-order perturbative QCD calculations in hadronic collisions at the TeV energy regime.
In ALICE, $\rm{D}^{*+}$ mesons are reconstructed at mid-rapidity via the hadronic decay channel $\rm{D}^{*+}\to\rm{D}^0\pi^+\to \rm{K}^-\pi^+\pi^+$. Cold-nuclear matter effects on the $\rm{D}^{*+}$-meson yield in p--Pb collisions are studied via comparison to the binary scaled $\rm{D}^{*+}$-meson yield in pp collisions. This comparison is quantified by means of the nuclear modification factor $R_{\rm{pA}}$.
In this contribution, we present the latest measurement of $\rm{D}^{*+}$-meson production in pp collisions at $\sqrt{s}= 7$ and 8 TeV from Run I and in pp collisions at 13 TeV and p--Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm{NN}}}= 5.02$ TeV from Run II.
| List of tracks | Heavy-flavour (open and hidden) |
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