Understand
Background: It has been proposed that the azimuthal distributions of heavy flavor quark-antiquark pairs may be modified in the medium of a heavy-ion collision.
- Purpose: This work tests this proposition through next-to-leading order (NLO) calculations of the azimuthal distribution, $d\sigma/d\phi$, including transverse momentum broadening, employing $<k_T^2>$ and fragmentation in exclusive $Q \bar Q$ pair production.
- While these studies were done for $p+p$, $p + \bar p$ and $p+$Pb collisions, understanding azimuthal angle correlations between heavy quarks in these smaller, colder systems is important for their interpretation in heavy-ion collisions.
- Methods: First, single inclusive $p_T$ distributions calculated with the exclusive HVQMNR code are compared to those calculated in the fixed-order next-to-leading logarithm approach.