Correlations of heavy quarks produced at the Large Hadron Collider

Abstract

We study the correlations of heavy quarks produced in relativistic heavy-ion collisions and find them to be quite sensitive to the effects of the medium and the production mechanisms. In order to put this on a quantitative footing, as a first step, we analyze the azimuthal, transverse momentum, and rapidity correlations of heavy quark-antiquark (QQ̄) pairs in pp collisions at O(α 3s). This sets the stage for the identification and study of medium modification of similar correlations in the relativistic collision of heavy nuclei at the Large Hadron Collider. Next we study the additional production of charm quarks in heavy ion collisions due to multiple scatterings, namely jet-jet collisions, jet-thermal collisions, and thermal interactions. We find that these give rise to azimuthal correlations which are quite different from those arising from the prompt initial production at leading order and at next to leading order. © 2012 IOP Publishing Ltd.