Measurement of electrons from charm and beauty-hadron decays in p-Pb collisions at √(s_NN) = 5.02 TeV with ALICE at the LHC

Electrons from inclusive semileptonic heavy-flavor hadron decays are used to measure charm and beauty production. Because of their large masses, heavy quarks are mostly produced in initial hard partonic interactions and thus can be used to probe the Quark-Gluon Plasma (QGP), a deconfined state of strongly-interacting matter created in heavy-ion collisions. In addition to the QGP, the presence of cold nuclear matter in the initial state may affect the production of heavy-flavour hadrons through shadowing/saturation effects. A contribution to the suppression observed in Pb-Pb collisions is investigated by analyzing p-Pb collisions. The p_T-differential production cross section of electrons from heavy-flavour hadron decays and beauty-hadron decays in the rapidity range -1.06 < y_cms < 0.14 in p-Pb collisions at √(s_NN) = 5.02 TeV has been measured with ALICE. The cross section of electrons from beauty-hadron decays, isolated based on their larger average displacement from the interaction vertex, are presented as well as the nuclear modification factor R_pPb of inclusive heavy-flavour and beauty-hadron decay electrons. Theoretical predictions including the effects due to the nuclear modification of the parton distribution functions are discussed with the results.