Probing The Profile Of Bulk Matter In P Plus Pb Collisions Via Directed Flow Of Heavy Quarks

The asymmetric initial geometry in p + Pb collisions provide an opportunity to probe the initial matter distribution in these collisions. Using a multiphase transport (AMPT) model, we have studied the production of light and heavy quark particles in p + Pb collisions at root s(NN) = 5.02 TeV. The pseudorapidity density (dN/d eta) and elliptic flow (v(2)) of light quark particles from AMPT reasonably agrees with the measurements by ALICE. We predicted the directed flow of light and heavy quarks in p + Pb collisions. The v(1) of both light and heavy quark mesons show a nontrivial p(T) dependence in p- and Pb-going directions. When integrated over the transverse momentum range 0 < p(T) < 5 GeV/c, the magnitude of heavy quark directed flow (v(1)) is found to be 15 times larger than the light quark species in the Pb-going direction while the same in the p-going direction are comparable. The light and heavy quarks v(1) may offer the possibility to probe the initial matter density as well as the collective dynamics in p + Pb collisions.