This Letter presents the measurement of differential cross sections of isolated prompt photons produced in association with a b-jet or a c-jet. These final states provide sensitivity to the heavy-flavour content of the proton and aspects related to the modelling of heavy-flavour quarks in perturbative QCD. The measurement uses proton-proton collision data at a centre-of-mass energy of 8 TeV recorded by the ATLAS detector at the LHC in 2012 corresponding to an integrated luminosity of up to 20.2 fb$^{-1}$. The differential cross sections are measured for each jet flavour with respect to the transverse energy of the leading photon in two photon pseudorapidity regions: $|\eta^\gamma|<1.37$ and $1.56<|\eta^\gamma|<2.37$. The measurement covers photon transverse energies $25 < E_\textrm{T}^\gamma<400$ GeV and $25 < E_\textrm{T}^\gamma<350$ GeV respectively for the two $|\eta^\gamma|$ regions. For each jet flavour, the ratio of the cross sections in the two $|\eta^\gamma|$ regions is also measured. The measurement is corrected for detector effects and compared to leading-order and next-to-leading-order perturbative QCD calculations, based on various treatments and assumptions about the heavy-flavour content of the proton. Overall, the predictions agree well with the measurement, but some deviations are observed at high photon transverse energies. The total uncertainty in the measurement ranges between 13% and 66%, while the central $\gamma+b$ measurement exhibits the smallest uncertainty, ranging from 13% to 27%, which is comparable to the precision of the theoretical predictions.
Signed shifts of the individual systematic uncertainties on the $\gamma+b$ cross section for $|\eta^\gamma|<1.37$. The numbers after the name of the uncertainty source refer to the individual component in that uncertainty. Each bin of the MC statistical uncertainty is independent of any other bin. The first four components of the photon energy scale uncertainty are specific to this $|\eta^\gamma|$ region and are independent of the components in the other region. The region is indicated as part of their name to indicate the independence between the $|\eta^\gamma|$ regions. The uncertainties on the prompt photon modelling, non-perturbative QCD models and particle-level migration effects are only varied once and not up and down by their nature, but are symmetrised for the final results. Only uncertainties which have at least a 1% variation in at least one bin of the $\gamma+b$ and $\gamma+c$ cross section measurements, including the ratios, are listed. The others are summed in quadrature and listed as a single entry.
Signed shifts of the individual systematic uncertainties on the $\gamma+b$ cross section for $1.56<|\eta^\gamma|<2.37$. The numbers after the name of the uncertainty source refer to the individual component in that uncertainty. Each bin of the MC statistical uncertainty is independent of any other bin. The first four components of the photon energy scale uncertainty are specific to this $|\eta^\gamma|$ region and are independent of the components in the other region. The region is indicated as part of their name to indicate the independence between the $|\eta^\gamma|$ regions. The uncertainties on the prompt photon modelling, non-perturbative QCD models and particle-level migration effects are only varied once and not up and down by their nature, but are symmetrised for the final results. Only uncertainties which have at least a 1% variation in at least one bin of the $\gamma+b$ and $\gamma+c$ cross section measurements, including the ratios, are listed. The others are summed in quadrature and listed as a single entry.
Signed shifts of the individual systematic uncertainties on the $\gamma+c$ cross section for $|\eta^\gamma|<1.37$. The numbers after the name of the uncertainty source refer to the individual component in that uncertainty. Each bin of the MC statistical uncertainty is independent of any other bin. The first four components of the photon energy scale uncertainty are specific to this $|\eta^\gamma|$ region and are independent of the components in the other region. The region is indicated as part of their name to indicate the independence between the $|\eta^\gamma|$ regions. The uncertainties on the prompt photon modelling, non-perturbative QCD models and particle-level migration effects are only varied once and not up and down by their nature, but are symmetrised for the final results. Only uncertainties which have at least a 1% variation in at least one bin of the $\gamma+b$ and $\gamma+c$ cross section measurements, including the ratios, are listed. The others are summed in quadrature and listed as a single entry.
Forum