Heavy quarks are produced at the first instant of a nucleus-nucleus collision and
therefore are an important tool to study the subsequent high energy-density medium formed in
ultra-relativistic heavy-ion collisions. A series of experimental efforts for understanding the
properties of the Quark-Gluon Plasma (QGP), a medium consisting of a deconfined state of
quarks and gluons, are based on measuring the bound states of heavy quark-antiquark pairs
known as quarkonia. However, the medium modification of heavy-flavour hadron production
includes also the contribution of cold nuclear matter effects such as shadowing or nuclear breakup
in addition to the QGP effects. Proton-nucleus collisions, where no QGP is expected, are used
to measure cold nuclear matter effects on quarkonium production. Finally, heavy-quark
measurements in proton-proton collisions are used as reference for both heavy-ion and protonion
collisions.
ALICE measurements of quarkonia via Muon Spectrometer for various energies and colliding
systems (pp, p-Pb, Pb-Pb) during the LHC Run-1 and Run-2 periods will be discussed. ALICE
results of nuclear modification factor and elliptic flow will be specially highlighted. A
comparison of the results among the LHC experiments and theoretical models will be also
presented.
Event calendar file
