D*+ Meson Nuclear Modification Factor in Pb-Pb collisions at √sNN = 5.02 TeV

Abstract

This thesis describes the measurement of the prompt charm D∗+ meson and its anti- particle using the 2015 Pb-Pb sample collected by the ALICE detector, at a centre- of-mass energy of √sNN = 5.02 TeV per nucleon-nucleon pair and in the centrality range 60-80%. In the range 1 < pT < 24 GeV/c the pT -differential production yields at central rapidity were used to calculate the nuclear modification factor RAA with a scaled pp reference at s = 5 TeV. At pT > 3 Gevc the RAA shows a suppression of 0.6-0.8 with no clear pT dependence. At 1 < pT < 2 GeV/c the RAA is compatible with unity within uncertainty. The D∗+ RAA is compaired with the recent ALICE measurement of the RAA of the other non-strange D mesons in the same centrality range. The average D meson RAA is also compared with theoretical models.