# Azimuthal anisotropy of D meson production in Pb-Pb collisions at sqrt(sNN) = 2.76 TeV

Abstract : The production of the prompt charmed mesons D0, D+ and D*+ relative to the reaction plane was measured in Pb-Pb collisions at a centre-of-mass energy per nucleon--nucleon collision of sqrt(sNN) = 2.76 TeV with the ALICE detector at the LHC. D mesons were reconstructed via their hadronic decays at central rapidity in the transverse momentum (pt) interval 2-16 Gev/c. The azimuthal anisotropy is quantified in terms of the second coefficient v_2 in a Fourier expansion of the D meson azimuthal distribution, and in terms of the nuclear modification factor R_AA, measured in the direction of the reaction plane and orthogonal to it. The v_2 coefficient was measured with three different methods and in three centrality classes in the interval 0-50%. A positive v_2 is observed in mid-central collisions (30-50% centrality class), with an mean value of 0.204_{-0.036}^{+0.099},(tot.unc.) in the interval 2 < pt < 6 Gev/c, which decreases towards more central collisions (10-30% and 0-10% classes). The positive v_2 is also reflected in the nuclear modification factor, which shows a stronger suppression in the direction orthogonal to the reaction plane for mid-central collisions. The measurements are compared to theoretical calculations of charm quark transport and energy loss in high-density strongly-interacting matter at high temperature. The models that include substantial elastic interactions with an expanding medium provide a good description of the observed anisotropy. However, they are challenged to simultaneously describe the strong suppression of high-pt yield of D mesons in central collisions and their azimuthal anisotropy in non-central collisions.
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Journal articles
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http://hal.in2p3.fr/in2p3-00988742
Contributor : Emmanuelle Vernay <>
Submitted on : Friday, May 9, 2014 - 9:25:13 AM
Last modification on : Tuesday, January 5, 2021 - 9:30:19 AM

### Citation

B. Abelev, G. Conesa Balbastre, J. Faivre, C. Furget, R. Guernane, et al.. Azimuthal anisotropy of D meson production in Pb-Pb collisions at sqrt(sNN) = 2.76 TeV. Physical Review C, American Physical Society, 2014, 90, pp.034904. ⟨10.1103/PhysRevC.90.034904⟩. ⟨in2p3-00988742⟩

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