Probing the charm-quark dead cone effect in heavy ion collisions

Abstract

The first experimental study of the dead-cone effect for the charm quark in heavy ion collisions is presented. The analysis is based on a sample of lead-lead (PbPb) collisions at a center-of-mass energy per nucleon pair of 5.02 TeV, recorded by the CMS experiment at the CERN LHC in 2018 and corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 1.7 nb$^{-1}$. The studied observable is the angular distribution of hard, collinear intrajet emissions that are selected with the late-$k_\mathrm{T}$ grooming algorithm. The analysis is performed using inclusive jets and a sample of jets containing prompt D$^0$ mesons. The angular distribution of late-$k_\mathrm{T}$ emissions in PbPb collisions is found to be shifted towards larger angles in D$^0$ jets relative to inclusive jets, indicating a suppression of collinear splittings for D$^0$ jets. This shift, which is expected from the dead-cone effect, is consistent with a similar observation made in proton-proton collisions. The new measurement disfavors hypotheses that predict a filling of the charm-quark dead cone by medium-induced radiation in heavy ion collisions.