Perspectives on heavy-flavour measurements with the Inner Tracking System upgrade of the ALICE detector at the LHC

ALICE is the LHC experiment dedicated to the study of the Quark-Gluon Plasma (QGP) in Pb-Pb collisions. Heavy quarks are ideal probes to explore the QGP formation and properties, since they are abundantly produced at the LHC and they experience the entire evolution of the medium.

ALICE measures heavy-quark production both at central and forward rapidity, reconstructing heavy-flavour particles, both exclusively, using a selection of hadronic
decay channels, and inclusively, using single leptons. Many important results have been obtained analyzing the data taken over the last three years, however there are still several open questions that are beyond the capabilities of the present detector. For example, a precise measurement of the elliptic flow of charm and beauty hadrons would provide insight on the heavy-quark transport parameters of the medium, and a measurement of heavy-flavour baryons would reveal the role of recombination in the heavy-quark sector.

An upgrade of the ALICE detector, including a new Inner Tracking System (ITS), has been recently approved and is scheduled for the second long shutdown of the LHC. The new ALICE apparatus will provide improved tracking precision (by about a factor of 3) and will collect data with higher rate, thanks to the upgrade of the Time Projection Chamber (TPC). These new features will allow one to measure rare probes in Pb-Pb collisions, such as heavy-flavour baryons and beauty decays and to improve the accuracy of the present measurements, such as elliptic flow and nuclear modification factor for the D mesons. I will present the expected performance of the new detector and the perspectives for the new or improved measurements with the upgraded ITS.

Relatore:Dott.ssa Rosa Romita (University of Liverpool)