Production of muons from heavy-flavour hadron decays at high transverse momentum in Pb–Pb collisions at and 2.76 TeV

Measurements of the production of muons from heavy-flavour hadron decays in Pb–Pb collisions at $\sqrt{{s}_{\mathrm{NN}}}=5.02$ and 2.76 TeV using the ALICE detector at the LHC are reported. The nuclear modification factor ${R}_{\mathrm{AA}}$ at $\sqrt{{s}_{\mathrm{NN}}}\phantom{\rule{0.25em}{0ex}}=\phantom{\rule{0.25em}{0ex}}5.02$ TeV is measured at forward rapidity ($2.57$ GeV/c). The ${R}_{\mathrm{AA}}$ shows an increase of the suppression of the yields of muons from heavy-flavour hadron decays with increasing centrality. A suppression by a factor of about three is observed in the 10% most central collisions. The ${R}_{\mathrm{AA}}$ at $\sqrt{{s}_{\mathrm{NN}}}\phantom{\rule{0.25em}{0ex}}=\phantom{\rule{0.25em}{0ex}}5.02$ TeV is similar to that at $\sqrt{{s}_{\mathrm{NN}}}\phantom{\rule{0.25em}{0ex}}=\phantom{\rule{0.25em}{0ex}}2.76$ TeV. The precise ${R}_{\mathrm{AA}}$ measurements have the potential to distinguish between model predictions implementing different mechanisms of parton energy loss in the high-density medium formed in heavy-ion collisions. They place important constraints for the understanding of the heavy-quark interaction with the hot and dense QCD medium.