Speaker
Description
Dileptons are a prime probe of the deconfined state of strongly interacting matter, the quark--gluon plasma (QGP), produced in high-energy heavy-ion collisions, as they are not affected by strong interactions after their creation.
A measurement of the thermal radiation from the QGP in the mass region between the $\phi$ and the $\rm J/\psi$ allows to estimate the medium temperature. In this region the main component of the dielectron continuum is originating from correlated semileptonic decays of open-charm and beauty hadrons.
The production of dielectrons originating from the decays of heavy-flavour hadrons in small systems can provide crucial insight for the measurement of thermal radiation in nucleus-nucleus collisions.
In this talk, the latest results on dielectron production in pp and p--Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}} = 5.02$ TeV will be presented.
We will discuss the production of heavy-flavour quarks in pp collisions compared with model predictions including different quark production mechanisms, as well as a possible modification of their production cross sections in p--Pb collisions. The data from both collision systems will be presented in terms of the dielectron nuclear modification factor $R_{\rm pPb}$.
Possible deviations from the vacuum baseline will be addressed in the light of present cold nuclear matter effects along with possible collective effects in small systems.
