Heavy-flavour production and multiplicity dependence in pp and p--Pb collisions with ALICE

Abstract

The production of heavy quarks in pp collisions provides a precision test of perturbative QCD calculations at the LHC energies. More complex collision systems like p--Pb collisions allow studies of cold nuclear matter effects, such as modifications of the parton distribution functions at small x and of the $\kt$ broadening effect. We present the ALICE results of prompt D-meson production as a function of the charged-particle multiplicity, in pp and p--Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s}=7$ TeV and $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=5.02$ TeV respectively. The per-event yield of D mesons in different multiplicity and $\pt$ intervals are compared for pp and p--Pb collisions to study the contribution of multi-parton interactions to open-charm production. Angular correlations of prompt D mesons and heavy-flavour decay electrons with charged hadrons in pp and p-Pb collisions are also shown in different kinematic ranges and compared to pQCD models. These measurements provide information on the charm fragmentation processes, on cold nuclear matter effects on charm production, and on the participation of charm in the collective motion arising in small collision systems like p-Pb.