Medium-induced modification of azimuthal correlations of electrons from heavy-flavor hadron decays with charged particles in Pb–Pb collisions at $$\mathbf {\sqrt{s_{\textrm{NN}}} = 5.02}$$ TeV

The azimuthal-correlation distributions between electrons from the decays of heavy-flavor hadrons and associated charged particles in Pb–Pb collisions at sNN=5.02 TeV are reported for the 0–10% and 30–50% centrality classes. This measurement provides access to the jet-like correlation observables in the heavy-flavor sector in Pb–Pb collisions. The analysis is performed for trigger electrons from heavy-flavor hadron decays with transverse momentum 4<16GeV/c, considering associated particles within the transverse-momentum range 1<7GeV/c, and a pseudorapidity difference of |Δη|<1 between the trigger electron and associated particles. The per-trigger nuclear modification factor (IAA) is calculated to compare the near- and away-side peak yields to those in pp collisions at s=5.02 TeV. In 0–10% central collisions, the IAA indicates a hint of enhancement of associated-particle yields with pT<3 GeV/c on the near side, and a suppression of yields with pT>4 GeV/c on the away side. The IAA for electron triggers from heavy-flavor hadron decays is compared with that for light-flavor and strange-particle triggers to investigate the dependence on different fragmentation processes and parton-medium dynamics, and is found to be the same within uncertainties.