Measurement of the production of electrons in proton-nucleus collisions with the ALICE experiment

Abstract

The goal of this work is to study the production of heavy quarks (charm and bottom) under extreme conditions of temperature and energy density, obtained by collisions between heavy ions (Pb) at relativistic energies. Under these conditions it is expected the formation of the so called Quarks and Gluon Plasma. In order to identify and isolate the effects due to the Plasma in the dynamics of these particles, comparisons will be carried out with the measurements from p + Pb collisions. The great interest in heavy quarks lies in the observation of the interaction of these quarks with the formed system, which can provide important information about its properties. The data are from the ALICE experiment (A Large Ion Collider Experiment), which consists of a collaboration of the new accelerator LHC (Large Hadron Collider) at CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research) dedicated primarily to the study of collisions between relativistic heavy ions. (AU)