Ultra-relativistic heavy-ion collisions produce a hot and dense QCD matter, called Quark-Gluon Plasma (QGP). Unlike in ordinary matter, quarks and gluons are not confined within short distances but can roam freely over distances larger than the hadronic scale in the state of QGP. Understanding this novel state of matter offers a new way to learn how quarks and gluons bind to form stable particles like the proton.
Heavy quarks (charm and beauty) are powerful probes to investigate the properties of the QGP. They are produced in hard scattering processes with large momentum transfer before the formation of the QGP, thus experiencing the full evolution of the system. Particles traversing the QGP undergo energy loss via collisional and radiative processes, and the dependence of these processes on the mass and color charge of the particles can be studied with charm and beauty quarks. In this talk, I will present results from the ALICE experiment at the LHC on heavy quarks in high-energy heavy-ion collisions. I will discuss what we have learnt from these results, and project future prospects.
Host: Isaac Mooney