Inclusive production of b jets in collisions of p–Pb and pp in ALICE

A relatively large mass of b quarks makes them a convenient tool to study the quark-gluon plasma produced in ultra-relativistic heavy-ion collisions. Thanks to this feature, b-quark production occurs mostly in initial hard scatterings and is calculable using perturbative quantum chromodynamics. Thus, beauty quarks can be considered as ideal penetrating probes of the created medium and can be utilized to investigate the mass-dependent properties of in-medium parton energy loss and cold nuclear matter effects (CNM). Since b-jet production in p–Pb collisions carries information about the changes in Parton Distribution Function in nuclei with respect to protons, these measurements represent an important baseline for future measurements in heavier collision systems. The ALICE experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN exploits its excellent particle-tracking capabilities that allow for precise jet reconstruction and identification of beauty-hadron decay vertices displaced hundreds of micrometers from the primary interaction vertex. A large amount of data of p–Pb and pp collisions at √s_{NN} = 5.02 TeV recorded during the LHC Run 2 makes it possible to follow the beauty-jet production down to relatively low transverse momenta, constraining CNM effects in a range relevant for testing different energy-loss models in Pb–Pb collisions. The presented thesis also discusses the recent upgrade of the ALICE Inner Tracking System (ITS) that will significantly improve b-jet tagging capabilities. The emphasis is put on the corresponding Quality Control software, which monitors the performance of ITS sensors.