Azimuthal angular correlations of D mesons and charged particles with the ALICE detector at the LHC

Abstract

The thesis presents the results of the analysis of azimuthal angular correlations of D mesons and charged particles with the ALICE detector, in pp and p-Pb collisions at center-of mass energies of 7 and 5.02 TeV respectively. The measurements have been performed differentially as function of the transverse momentum (pT) of the D mesons as well as of charged particles. The comparison of the correlation distribution (and of the relative parameters) obtained from the measurements in the two collisional systems, provides insights into the effect of cold nuclear matter effects on the fragmentation process and, indirectly on the heavy-quark production mechanisms. In addition, both the measurements represent the baseline for future measurements in Pb-Pb collisions. The correlation distributions are compared also to predictions of different Monte Carlo models, namely different tunes of PYTHIA, and POWHEG. An outlook of the near-future measurements in Pb-Pb collisions as well as of measurements using a data sample with a trigger provided by the electromagnetic calorimeter is also presented in the thesis.