Speaker
Description
Understanding the origin of prompt D0 meson elliptic flow helps us to learn how charm quarks interact with the quark-gluon plasma (QGP), with the initial state determined by the event-by-event collision geometry. The event shape-dependent elliptic flow can be understood in detail using the event shape engineering (ESE) technique. ESE correlates light hadron elliptic flow, a proxy for the collision eccentricity, to that of the D0 mesons. In this talk, we present the prompt D0 meson ESE in PbPb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=5.02$ TeV measured with the CMS detector. A strong linear correlation between the D0 meson and charged-particle $v_2$ is observed for low transverse momenta in the collision centrality range 10-40%. The strong correlation suggests that charm quarks are modified in the same way as light hadrons, which supports a high level of fully thermalized charm inside the QGP. The results are compared with model calculations that describe the thermalization and collective motion of D0 mesons and charged particles.
