Measurement of electrons from heavy-flavour decays in pp and Pb–Pb collisions with ALICE at the LHC

The ALICE experiment has measured at mid-rapidity electrons from heavy-flavour decays in pp collisions at image and 7 TeV, and in Pb–Pb collisions at image. In pp collisions, electrons from charm-hadron and from beauty-hadron decays are identified by applying cuts on displaced vertices. Alternatively the relative yield of electrons from beauty decays to those from heavy-flavour decays is extracted using electron–hadron correlations. Results are compared to pQCD-based calculations. In Pb–Pb collisions, the image dependence of the nuclear modification factor of electrons from heavy-flavour decays is presented in two centrality classes. The status of the analysis of electrons from beauty decays in Pb–Pb collisions is reported, in view of the measurement of the corresponding nuclear modification factor.