Studies of beauty suppression via nonprompt D 0 mesons in Pb-Pb collisions at √s NN = 5.02 TeV

Abstract

The transverse momentum spectra of D-0 mesons from b hadron decays are measured at midrapidity (vertical bar y vertical bar < 1) in pp and Pb-Pb collisions at a nucleon-nucleon center of mass energy of 5.02 TeV with the CMS detector at the LHC. The D-0 mesons from b hadron decays are distinguished from prompt D-0 mesons by their decay topologies. In Pb-Pb collisions, the B -> D-0 yield is found to be suppressed in the measured p(T) range from 2 to 100 GeV/c as compared to pp collisions. The suppression is weaker than that of prompt D-0 mesons and charged hadrons for p(T) around 10 GeV/c. While theoretical calculations incorporating partonic energy loss in the quark-gluon plasma can successfully describe the measured B -> D-0 suppression at higher p(T), the data show an indication of larger suppression than the model predictions in the range of 2 < p(T) < 5 GeV/c.