Heavy flavor jets in ALICE

Heavy-flavor quarks are considered to be effective probes of the Quark–Gluon Plasma (QGP) produced in ultra-relativistic heavy-ion collisions. Since quarks have a large mass, their production takes place mostly in initial hard processes, and it is calculable using perturbative QCD. Thus, heavy flavor quarks can be considered as ideal early-generated penetrating probes of the created medium and utilized to investigate mass-dependent properties of in-medium parton energy loss. Moreover, the measurement of heavy-flavor jet production in pp, besides being a natural reference for Pb–Pb studies, allows testing pQCD calculations and models of charm fragmentation in vacuum. In addition, similar measurements in p–Pb collisions allow assessing the importance of cold nuclear matter effects. The ALICE experiment at the LHC has excellent particle tracking capabilities, that allow for a precise jet reconstruction and for the identification of [Formula: see text]-meson and beauty hadron decay vertices, displaced hundreds of micrometers from the primary interaction vertex. In this proceedings, we will report the latest heavy-flavor jet measurements performed in p–Pb and pp collisions.

Heavy-Flavor Measurements with the ALICE Experiment at the LHC

Heavy quarks (charm and beauty) are produced early in the nucleus–nucleus collisions, and heavy flavor survives throughout the later stages. Measurements of heavy-flavor quarks thus provide us with means to understand the properties of the Quark–Gluon Plasma, a hot and dense state of matter created in heavy-ion collisions. Production of heavy-flavor in small collision systems, on the other hand, can be used to test Quantum-chromodynamics models. After a successful completion of the Run-I data taking period, the increased luminosity from the LHC and an upgraded ALICE detector system in the Run-II data taking period allows for unprecedented precision in the study of heavy quarks. In this article we give an overview of selected recent results on heavy-flavor measurements with ALICE experiments at the LHC.

Measurements of charm hadron production and anisotropic flow in Au+Au collisions at 200 GeV with the STAR experiment at RHIC

Heavy flavor quarks, owing to their large masses, are predominantly produced through initial hard parton scatterings in heavy-ion collisions, and thus are excellent probes to study properties of the strongly coupled Quark Gluon Plasma (sQGP) medium produced in these collisions. Measurements of anisotropic flow harmonics of heavy flavor hadrons can provide information on the properties of the medium, including the heavy flavor transport coefficient. Charm quark hadronization mechanism in the sQGP medium can be studied through measurements of yields of different charm hadrons. In these proceedings we report on the measurements of elliptic and triangular flow harmonics of D0 mesons as well as the yield ratios of D±s/D0 and Λ±c/D0 in Au+Au collisions at [see formula in PDF] = 200 GeV at RHIC with the STAR detector. These measurements use the STAR Heavy Flavor Tracker (HFT) to reconstruct charm hadrons via their hadronic decay channels. Results are compared to model calculations and the implications on the understanding of charm quark dynamics in the medium are discussed.

Molecular states with two heavy quarks

Within the one-boson-exchange (OBE) potential model, we perform a coupled-channel study of the possible deuteron-like molecular states with two heavy flavor quarks. In our study, we take into account the S-D mixing and the coupled-channel effect in the flavor space. Interestingly, we predict some molecular states which are suggested to be searched for in the further experiments.