Centrality dependence of nuclear suppression of D mesons in $p$+Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 5.02 TeV

Abstract: In this paper we have shown theoretical model comparisons with ALICE results for average D mesons (D$^0$, D$^+$, D$^{*+}$ and $D^+_s$) in $p$+Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 5.02 TeV for various centralities. Transport calculations of AMPT and calculations from heavy quark pQCD model, NLO(MNR) have been used for the study of $p_T$ dependent nuclear modification factors in terms of collision centrality ($\displaystyle{Q_{pPb}}$) and the central-to-peripheral ratios ($\displaystyle{Q_{cp}}$) of D mesons. It is found that NLO model with its parametrized $\displaystyle{k_T}$ broadening scheme produces results those closely match with the published D-meson data of $p$+Pb collisions from ALICE. Likewise AMPT transport calculation shows a strong centrality dependence in results but underestimates the experimental data. The differences of both models with experimental data have been discussed.