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

The azimuthal-correlation distributions between electrons from the decays of heavy-flavor hadrons and associated charged particles in Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{N}\mathrm{N}}}=5.02$ TeV are reported for the 0-10% and 30-50% centrality classes. This is the first measurement to provide access to the azimuthal-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 $4<p_{\mathrm{T}}^{\mathrm{e}}<16$ GeV/$c$, considering associated particles within the transverse-momentum range $1<p_{\mathrm{T}}^{\mathrm{a}\mathrm{s}\mathrm{s}\mathrm{o}\mathrm{c}}<7$ GeV/$c$, and a pseudorapidity difference of $\mathrm{\mid }\mathrm{\Delta }\eta \mathrm{\mid }<1$ between the trigger electron and associated particles. The per-trigger nuclear modification factor ($I_{\mathrm{A}\mathrm{A}}$) is calculated to compare the near- and away-side peak yields to those in pp collisions at $\sqrt{s}=5.02$ TeV. In 0-10% central collisions, the $I_{\mathrm{A}\mathrm{A}}$ indicates a hint of enhancement of associated-particle yields with $p_{\mathrm{T}}<3$ GeV/$c$ on the near side, and a suppression of yields with $p_{\mathrm{T}}>4$ GeV/$c$ on the away side. The $I_{\mathrm{A}\mathrm{A}}$ 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.