D meson elliptic flow in non-central Pb-Pb collisions at \(\sqrt{s_{NN}}\) = 2.76TeV

Abstract

Azimuthally anisotropic distributions of \(D^0, D^+\) and \(D^{*+}\) mesons were studied in the central rapidity region (|y| < 0.8) in Pb-Pb collisions at a centre-of-mass energy \(\sqrt{s_{NN}}\) = 2.76 TeV per nucleon-nucleon collision, with the ALICE detector at the LHC. The second Fourier coefficient \(\nu_2\) (commonly denoted elliptic flow) was measured in the centrality class 30-50% as a function of the D meson transverse momentum \(p_T\), in the range 2-16 GeV/c. The measured \(\nu_2\) of D mesons is comparable in magnitude to that of light-flavour hadrons. It is positive in the range 2 < \(p_T\) < 6 GeV/c with 5.7 \(\sigma\) significance, based on the combination of statistical and systematic uncertainties.