Collectivity of heavy mesons in proton-nucleus collisions

Abstract

Using a model based on the color glass condensate framework and the dilute-dense factorization, we systematically study the azimuthal angular correlations between a heavy flavor meson and a light reference particle in proton-nucleus collisions. The obtained second-harmonic coefficients (also known as the elliptic flows) for J/ψ and D0 agree with recent experimental data from the LHC. We also provide predictions for the elliptic flows of A and B mesons, which can be measured in the near future at the LHC. This work can shed light on the physical origin of the collectivity phenomenon in the collisions of small systems.