Heavy Flavour decay muon production at forward rapidity in pp collisions at \sqrt{s}= 7 TeV and in Pb-Pb collisions at \sqrt{s_{NN}}=2.76 TeV with the ALICE experiment

Abstract

The production of muons from heavy flavour decays is measured at forward rapidity (2.5 < y < 4) with the muon spectrometer of the ALICE experiment at the LHC. In pp collisions at \sqrt{s} = 7 TeV, the measurement of the transverse momentum and rapidity differential production cross section of muons from heavy flavour decays is carried out from a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of Lint = 16.5 nb^-1 and results are compared to predictions based on perturbative QCD calculations. In Pb-Pb collisions at \sqrt{s_{NN}}= 2.76 TeV, the analysis of a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of Lint = 2.48 \mub^-1 provides a measurement of the ratio of inclusive muon yield in central to peripheral collisions (RCP) as a function of the collision centrality.