Dielectron production in Pb-Pb collisions at √(s_NN) = 5.02 TeV with ALICE

Electron-positron pairs are an excellent probe to investigate the properties of the Quark-Gluon Plasma (QGP) created in ultra-relativistic heavy-ion collisions. Because they are produced at all stages of the collision and do not interact strongly with the medium, their spectra reflect the entire space-time evolution of the system. At low invariant mass, the dielectron production is sensitive to the properties of vector mesons in the dense medium which is related to the predicted restoration of the chiral symmetry. In the intermediate-mass region, the dielectron continuum gives further insight into the heavy-quark energy loss in the QGP via the measurement of correlated electron-positron pairs from charm- and beauty- hadron decays. In this talk, the status of the dielectron measurements in Pb-Pb collisions at √(s_NN)=5.02 TeV with ALICE is presented. In order to interpret the data, the findings are compared to the expected yield of known hadronic sources, i.e. the hadronic cocktail, as a function of the invariant mass and pair transverse momentum. Finally, the status of the measurement of virtual direct photons and modifications of the dielectron yield in Pb-Pb collisions is discussed.