Charm and beauty of the Large Hadron Collider.pdf

a r X i v : h e p - p h / 0 5 0 1 2 9 3 v 1 3 1 J a n 2 0 0 5 Charm and beauty of the Large Hadron Collider Andrea Dainese ? Universita? degli Studi di Padova and INFN, via Marzolo 8, 35131 Padova, Italy Abstract. With the acceleration of lead nuclei in the LHC, heavy-ion physics will enter a new energy domain. One of the main novelties introduced by the 30-fold energy-jump from RHIC to the LHC is the abundant heavy-quark production. After discussing a few examples of physics issues that can be addressed using heavy quarks, we present a selection of results on the expected experimental capability of ALICE, the dedicated heavy-ion experiment at the LHC, in the open-heavy-flavour sector. PACS numbers: 25.75.-q, 14.65.Dw, 13.25.Ft 1. Introduction: novel aspects of heavy-ion physics at the LHC The nucleon–nucleon c.m.s. energy for Pb–Pb collisions at the LHC, √ sNN = 5.5 TeV, will exceed that available at RHIC by a factor about 30, opening up a new domain for the study of strongly-interacting matter in conditions of high temperature and energy density (QCD medium). Particle production at the LHC will present quantitative and qualitative new features, as discussed in the following. Hard processes should contribute significantly to the total cross section. The mechanism of energy loss due to medium-induced gluon radiation allows to use the energetic partons produced in initial hard-scattering processes as probes to collect information on the opacity and density of the medium itself. At the LHC, the set of available probes will be extended both quantitatively and qualitatively. In fact, hard (light)quarks and gluons will be produced with high rates up to very large transverse momentum (pt). Additionally, charm and beauty quarks, which, due to their masses, would show different attenuation patterns (see section 2), will become available for detailed measurements, since their production cross sections are expected to increase by factors 10 and 100, respectively, from RH