Correlation of heavy and light flavours in simulations

Abstract

The ALICE experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) ring is designed to study the strongly interacting matter at extreme energy densities created in high-energy heavy-ion collisions. In this paper we investigate correlations of heavy and light flavours in simulations at LHC energies at mid-rapidity, with the primary purpose of proposing experimental application of these methods. Our studies have shown that investigating the correlation images can aid the experimental separation of heavy quarks and help understanding the physics that create them. The shape of the correlation peaks can be used to separate the electrons stemming from b quarks. This could be a method of identification that, combined with identification in silicon vertex detectors, may provide much better sample purity for examining the secondary vertex shift. Based on a correlation picture it is also possible to distinguish between prompt and late contributions to D meson yields.