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Heavy flavour decay muon production at forward rapidity in proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s} = 7$ TeV

ALICE Collaboration

TL;DR

This paper presents a forward-rapidity measurement of muons from heavy-flavour decays in proton–proton collisions at $\ oot s=7$ TeV with the ALICE detector, covering $2.5<y<4$ and $2< p_T<12$ GeV/$c$. Backgrounds from decay muons and secondary hadron decays are modeled with PYTHIA6 and PHOJET and subtracted, with detector acceptance and efficiency corrections applied to obtain differential cross sections. The results are compared to FONLL pQCD predictions, showing general agreement within uncertainties but a tendency for data to lie above central theory values, with a ~1.3 data-to-FONLL ratio across the measured $p_T$ and $y$ ranges. The findings provide a crucial baseline for heavy-quark studies in heavy-ion collisions and complement mid-rapidity measurements by ATLAS, CMS, and LHCb. The analysis also quantifies the charm and beauty contributions, noting that beauty dominates at higher $p_T$ ($\gtrsim6$ GeV/$c$).

Abstract

The production of muons from heavy flavour decays is measured at forward rapidity in proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s} = 7$ TeV collected with the ALICE experiment at the LHC. The analysis is carried out on a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity $L_{\rm int} = 16.5$ nb$^{-1}$. The transverse momentum and rapidity differential production cross sections of muons from heavy flavour decays are measured in the rapidity range 2.5 < y < 4, over the transverse momentum range 2 < $p_{\rm T}$ < 12 GeV/$c$. The results are compared to predictions based on perturbative QCD calculations.

Heavy flavour decay muon production at forward rapidity in proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s} = 7$ TeV

TL;DR

This paper presents a forward-rapidity measurement of muons from heavy-flavour decays in proton–proton collisions at TeV with the ALICE detector, covering and GeV/. Backgrounds from decay muons and secondary hadron decays are modeled with PYTHIA6 and PHOJET and subtracted, with detector acceptance and efficiency corrections applied to obtain differential cross sections. The results are compared to FONLL pQCD predictions, showing general agreement within uncertainties but a tendency for data to lie above central theory values, with a ~1.3 data-to-FONLL ratio across the measured and ranges. The findings provide a crucial baseline for heavy-quark studies in heavy-ion collisions and complement mid-rapidity measurements by ATLAS, CMS, and LHCb. The analysis also quantifies the charm and beauty contributions, noting that beauty dominates at higher ( GeV/).

Abstract

The production of muons from heavy flavour decays is measured at forward rapidity in proton-proton collisions at TeV collected with the ALICE experiment at the LHC. The analysis is carried out on a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity nb. The transverse momentum and rapidity differential production cross sections of muons from heavy flavour decays are measured in the rapidity range 2.5 < y < 4, over the transverse momentum range 2 < < 12 GeV/. The results are compared to predictions based on perturbative QCD calculations.

Paper Structure

This paper contains 12 sections, 2 equations, 4 figures, 1 table.

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. The ALICE experiment and data taking conditions
  3. Data analysis
  4. Data sample: event and track selection
  5. Subtraction of the background contribution of decay muons
  6. Corrections
  7. Production cross section normalization
  8. Summary of systematic uncertainties
  9. Results and model comparisons
  10. Conclusions
  11. Acknowledgements
  12. The ALICE Collaboration

Figures (4)

  • Figure 1: Transverse momentum distribution of reconstructed tracks in the muon spectrometer after all selection cuts were applied (see section 3.1 for details). The distributions were obtained from a PYTHIA pyt1pyt2 (tune Perugia-0 per10) simulation of pp collisions at $\sqrt s$ = 7 TeV. The main sources are indicated in the figure.
  • Figure 2: Acceptance $\times$ efficiency as a function of generated $p_{\mathrm t}$, obtained from a simulation of muons from beauty decays.
  • Figure 3: Left: $p_{\mathrm t}$ -differential production cross section of muons from heavy flavour decays in the rapidity range $2.5 < y < 4$. Right: y-differential production cross section of muons from heavy flavour decays, in the range $2 < p_{\rm t} < 12$ GeV/$c$. In both panels, the error bars (empty boxes) represent the statistical (systematic) uncertainties. A 3.5$\%$ normalization uncertainty is not shown. The solid curves are FONLL calculations and the bands display the theoretical systematic uncertainties. Also shown, are the FONLL calculations and systematic theoretical uncertainties for muons from charm (long dashed curves) and beauty (dashed curves) decays. The lower panels show the corresponding ratios between data and FONLL calculations.
  • Figure 4: Upper panel: $p_{\mathrm t}$ -differential production cross section of muons from heavy flavour decays in five rapidity regions mentioned in the figures. The error bars (empty boxes) represent the statistical (systematic) uncertainties. A 3.5$\%$ normalization uncertainty is not shown. The solid curves are FONLL calculations and the bands display the theoretical systematic uncertainty. Lower panel: ratio between data and FONLL calculations.