Observation of the $B_c^+$ Meson in Pb-Pb and pp Collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$=5.02 TeV and Measurement of its Nuclear Modification Factor
(2022) Physical Review Letters — Vol. 128 (2022)
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- Abstract
- The B$_\mathrm{c}^+$ meson is observed for the first time in heavy ion collisions. Data from the CMS detector are used to study the production of the B$_\mathrm{c}^+$ meson in lead-lead (PbPb) and proton-proton (pp) collisions at a center-of-mass energy per nucleon pair of $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}} =$ 5.02 TeV, via the B$_\mathrm{c}^+$$\to$ (J/$\psi$$\to$$\mu^+\mu^-$)$\mu^+\nu_\mu$ decay. The B$_\mathrm{c}^+$ nuclear modification factor, derived from the PbPb-to-pp ratio of production cross sections, is measured in two bins of the trimuon transverse momentum and of the PbPb collision centrality. The B$_\mathrm{c}^+$ meson is shown to be less suppressed than quarkonia and most of the open heavy-flavor mesons, suggesting that effects of the hot and dense nuclear matter created in heavy ion collisions contribute to its production. This measurement sets forth a promising new probe of the interplay of suppression and enhancement mechanisms in the production of heavy-flavor mesons in the quark-gluon plasma.
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Benecke, A., Bethani, A., Bruno, G., Bury, F., Caputo, C., David, P., Delaere, C., Donertas, I. S., Giammanco, A., Jaffel, K., Jain, S., Jain, S., Lemaitre, V., Mondal, K., Prisciandaro, J., Taliercio, A., Teklishyn, M., Tran, T. T., Vischia, P., et al. (2022). Observation of the $B_c^+$ Meson in Pb-Pb and pp Collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$=5.02 TeV and Measurement of its Nuclear Modification Factor. Physical Review Letters, 128. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.128.252301 (Original work published 2022)