The production of prompt D$_s^+$ mesons was measured for the first time in collisions of heavy nuclei with the ALICE detector at the LHC. The analysis was performed on a data sample of Pb-Pb collisions at a centre-of-mass energy per nucleon pair, $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}$, of 2.76 TeV in two different centrality classes, namely 0-10% and 20-50%. D$_s^+$ mesons and their antiparticles were reconstructed at mid-rapidity from their hadronic decay channel D$_s^+\rightarrow\phi\pi^+$, with $\phi\rightarrow$K$^-$K$^+$, in the transverse momentum intervals $4< p_{\rm T}<12$ GeV/$c$ and $6< p_{\rm T}<12$ GeV/$c$ for the 0-10% and 20-50% centrality classes, respectively. The nuclear modification factor $R_{\rm AA}$ was computed by comparing the $p_{\rm T}$-differential production yields in Pb-Pb collisions to those in proton-proton (pp) collisions at the same energy. This pp reference was obtained using the cross section measured at $\sqrt{s}= 7$ TeV and scaled to $\sqrt{s}= 2.76$ TeV. The $R_{\rm AA}$ of D$_s^+$ mesons was compared to that of non-strange D mesons in the 10% most central Pb-Pb collisions. At high $p_{\rm T}$ ($8< p_{\rm T}<12$ GeV/$c$) a suppression of the D$_s^+$-meson yield by a factor of about three, compatible within uncertainties with that of non-strange D mesons, is observed. At lower $p_{\rm T}$ ($4< p_{\rm T}<8$ GeV/$c$) the values of the D$_s^+$-meson $R_{\rm AA}$ are larger than those of non-strange D mesons, although compatible within uncertainties. The production ratios D$_s^+$/D$^0$ and D$_s^+$\D$^+$ were also measured in Pb-Pb collisions and compared to their values in proton-proton collisions.
The differential invariant yield as a function of transverse momentum ($p_\mathrm{T}$) of electrons from semileptonic heavy-flavour hadron decays was measured at midrapidity in central (0-10%), semi-central (30-50%) and peripheral (60-80%) lead-lead (Pb-Pb) collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}=5.02\text{ TeV}$ in the $p_{\mathrm{T}}$ intervals 0.5-26 GeV/$c$ (0-10% and 30-50%) and 0.5-10 GeV/$c$ (60-80%). The production cross section in proton-proton (pp) collisions at $\sqrt{s}=5.02$ TeV was measured as well in $0.5<p_\mathrm{T}<10$ GeV/$c$ and it lies close to the upper band of perturbative QCD calculation uncertainties up to $p_\mathrm{T}=5$ GeV/$c$ and close to the mean value for larger $p_\mathrm{T}$. The modification of the electron yield with respect to what is expected for an incoherent superposition of nucleon-nucleon collisions is evaluated by measuring the nuclear modification factor $R_{\mathrm{AA}}$. The measurement of the $R_{\mathrm{AA}}$ in different centrality classes allows in-medium energy loss of charm and beauty quarks to be investigated. The $R_{\mathrm{AA}}$ shows a suppression with respect to unity at intermediate $p_\mathrm{T}$, which increases while moving towards more central collisions. Moreover, the measured $R_{\mathrm{AA}}$ is sensitive to the modification of the parton distribution functions (PDF) in nuclei, like nuclear shadowing, which causes a suppression of the heavy-quark production at low $p_\mathrm{T}$ in heavy-ion collisions at LHC.
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