Heavy-flavour hadron production provides information about the transport properties and microscopic structure of the quark-gluon plasma created in ultra-relativistic heavy-ion collisions. A measurement of the muons from semileptonic decays of charm and bottom hadrons produced in Pb+Pb and $pp$ collisions at a nucleon-nucleon centre-of-mass energy of 5.02 TeV with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider is presented. The Pb+Pb data were collected in 2015 and 2018 with sampled integrated luminosities of $208~\mathrm{\mu b}^{-1}$ and $38~\mathrm{\mu b^{-1}}$, respectively, and $pp$ data with a sampled integrated luminosity of $1.17~\mathrm{pb}^{-1}$ were collected in 2017. Muons from heavy-flavour semileptonic decays are separated from the light-flavour hadronic background using the momentum imbalance between the inner detector and muon spectrometer measurements, and muons originating from charm and bottom decays are further separated via the muon track's transverse impact parameter. Differential yields in Pb+Pb collisions and differential cross sections in $pp$ collisions for such muons are measured as a function of muon transverse momentum from 4 GeV to 30 GeV in the absolute pseudorapidity interval $|\eta| < 2$. Nuclear modification factors for charm and bottom muons are presented as a function of muon transverse momentum in intervals of Pb+Pb collision centrality. The measured nuclear modification factors quantify a significant suppression of the yields of muons from decays of charm and bottom hadrons, with stronger effects for muons from charm hadron decays.
Summary of charm muon double differential cross section in pp collisions at 5.02 TeV as a function of pT. Uncertainties are statistical and systematic, respectively.
Summary of charm muon per-event invariant yields in Pb+Pb collisions at 5.02 TeV as a function of pT for five different centrality intervals. Uncertainties are statistical and systematic, respectively.
Summary of bottom muon per-event invariant yields in Pb+Pb collisions at 5.02 TeV as a function of pT for five different centrality intervals. Uncertainties are statistical and systematic, respectively.
Azimuthal anisotropies of muons from charm and bottom hadron decays are measured in Pb+Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_\mathrm{NN}}= 5.02$ TeV. The data were collected with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider in 2015 and 2018 with integrated luminosities of $0.5~\mathrm{nb}^{-1}$ and $1.4~\mathrm{nb^{-1}}$, respectively. The kinematic selection for heavy-flavor muons requires transverse momentum $4 < p_\mathrm{T} < 30$ GeV and pseudorapidity $|\eta|<2.0$. The dominant sources of muons in this $p_\mathrm{T}$ range are semi-leptonic decays of charm and bottom hadrons. These heavy-flavor muons are separated from light-hadron decay muons and punch-through hadrons using the momentum imbalance between the measurements in the tracking detector and in the muon spectrometers. Azimuthal anisotropies, quantified by flow coefficients, are measured via the event-plane method for inclusive heavy-flavor muons as a function of the muon $p_\mathrm{T}$ and in intervals of Pb+Pb collision centrality. Heavy-flavor muons are separated into contributions from charm and bottom hadron decays using the muon transverse impact parameter with respect to the event primary vertex. Non-zero elliptic ($v_{2}$) and triangular ($v_{3}$) flow coefficients are extracted for charm and bottom muons, with the charm muon coefficients larger than those for bottom muons for all Pb+Pb collision centralities. The results indicate substantial modification to the charm and bottom quark angular distributions through interactions in the quark-gluon plasma produced in these Pb+Pb collisions, with smaller modifications for the bottom quarks as expected theoretically due to their larger mass.
Summary of results for Inclusive HF muon v2 as a function of pT for different centrality. Uncertainties are statistical and systematic, respectively.
Summary of results for Inclusive HF muon v3 as a function of pT for different centrality. Uncertainties are statistical and systematic, respectively.
Summary of results for charm muon v2 as a function of pT for different centrality. Uncertainties are statistical and systematic, respectively.
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