D-meson production in jets at the large hadron collider with ALICE

• Grant number: 15/20932-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Doctorate (Direct)
• Start date: November 25, 2015
• End date: November 24, 2016
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Physics - Nuclear Physics
• Principal Investigator: Alexandre Alarcon do Passo Suaide
• Grantee: Antonio Carlos Oliveira da Silva
• Supervisor: André Mischke
• Host Institution: Instituto de Física (IF). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Utrecht University (UU), Netherlands
• Associated to the scholarship: 12/13236-0 - Correlation measurements between jets and D* mesons at the ALICE experiment at LHC, BP.DD

Abstract

Currently, the main goal of the high-energy nuclear physics is to understand the properties of nuclear matter at high temperatures. In ultra relativistic heavy-ion collisions experiments it is possible to create the necessary conditions for a phase transition from a cold to a hot nuclear matter. Since heavy-quarks are produced in the early stages of hadronic collisions, they are ideal probes to study charm interaction with the Quark-Gluon Plasma (QGP) and characterize charm-quark energy loss. Heavy-ion collisions at the LHC energies can explore regions of energy and particle density significantly above those found at RHIC. Due to the high initial density of partons, the thermalization occours faster and the ratio between the QGP lifetime and the time of thermalization grows by a factor 10. As a consequence the "fireballs" produced in the heavy-ions collisions have their lifetime almost entirely in a pure partonic state. The ALICE detector was developed and optimized with focus on Pb-Pb collisions. ALICE collaboration has strong expertise in the study of the Quark-Gluon Plasma. This project aims to measure D-meson production in jets and their charm-jet momentum fraction. This is a key observable for the study of the charm interaction with the Quark-Gluon Plasma. (AU)