Elliptic azimutal anisotropy of electrons from heavy-flavour decays in Pb-Pb collisions at a SNN = 2.76 TeV

This thesis presents measurements of the elliptic azimuthal anisotropy of electrons from heavy-flavour decays with the A Large Ion Collider Experiment (ALICE). The measurement is performed for the first time in Pb-Pb collisions at center-of-mass energy per colliding nucleon pair psNN = 2.76 TeV at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). In heavy-ion collisions at ultrarelativistic energies sufficiently high temperature and/or energy density can be achieved to form the Quark-Gluon Plasma (QGP), the state of matter predicted by Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) in which quarks and gluons are deconfined from hadrons. One of the most important probes of the QGP formation is the elliptic azimuthal anisotropy, which is quantified by the second harmonic v2 of the particle azimuthal angle distribution with respect to the angle of the reaction plane, which is defined by the impact parameter direction and the beam direction. In addition, heavy quarks (charm and beauty) serve as a sensitive probe of the QGP properties since they are predominantly produced in initial hard scattering processes and interact with the deconfined medium. The transverse momentum dependence of the heavy-flavour decay electron v2 can be used to investigate the QGP properties. The measurement of v2 of electrons from heavy-flavour decays at low transverse momentum provides a way to test whether heavy quarks take part in the collective motion in the medium. Whereas, v2 of electrons from heavy-flavour decays at high transverse momentum is interpreted as a path length dependence of heavy-quark energy loss within the created dense medium. Results of the elliptic azimuthal anisotropy of electrons from heavy-flavour decays as a function of tranverse momentum obtained in 20-40% and 30-50% central Pb-Pb collisions at psNN = 2.76 TeV will be shown. The measurement is compared with theoretical predictions and previous measurement at the RHIC experiment. Preliminary measurements of the elliptic azimuthal anisotropy of electrons from charm and beauty as a function of tranverse momentum in 30-50% central Pb-Pb collisions at psNN = 2.76 TeV will be shown as well.