Mainz 2012 – scientific programme

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HK: Fachverband Physik der Hadronen und Kerne

HK 60: Schwerionenkollisionen und QCD Phasen

HK 60.3: Talk

Friday, March 23, 2012, 11:30–11:45, P 5

Elliptic flow of heavy-flavor electrons in Pb-Pb collisions at 2.76 TeV with ALICE — •Raphaelle Bailhache and Theodor Rascanu — Institut für Kernphysik, Universität Frankfurt, Germany

In ultra-relativistic heavy-ion collisions, heavy quarks, i.e charm and beauty, are produced in the early stage of the reaction. Therefore, they are uniquely suited to probe the Quark-Gluon-Plasma (QGP), which is formed in such reactions. The properties of the QGP can be studied via the azimuthal anisotropy of the heavy-quark emission in the transverse plane, quantified by the elliptic flow v₂. Experimentally, this anisotropy can be measured indirectly via the semi-electronic decays of heavy-flavor hadrons.
We present the measured elliptic flow of inclusive electrons in Pb-Pb collisions at 2.76 TeV with the ALICE detector. Electrons are identified using the Time Projection Chamber and the Time-Of-Flight detector. The elliptic flow analysis is performed with methods based on two-particle correlations, i.e. the event plane method and second order cumulant, as well as four-particle correlations, i.e; fourth order cumulant. We show the elliptic flow of inclusive electrons as function of transverse momentum and the centrality of the collision for the different methods. At high p_t the contribution of electrons from heavy-flavour decays is expected to be dominant, whereas at low p_t most electrons come from Dalitz decay of π⁰ and gamma conversion in the detector material. We compare the inclusive electron v₂ with the elliptic flow of electrons from the Dalitz decay of π⁰.