Production of electrons from heavy flavor decays in p-Pb collisions at $\surd$s $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 5.02 TeV measured with ALICE

Ultrarelativistic nucleus-nucleus collisions at the Large Hadron Collider are used to study nuclear matter under high temperature and energy density by creating a Quark Gluon Plasma (QGP). Complementary studies of p-Pb collisions were meant to isolate cold nuclear matter effects and mechanisms unrelated to the presence of a QGP. However there are some recent hints that there may also be collective effects in p-Pb collisions making the separation of cold and hot nuclear matter effects more challenging. In Pb-Pb collisions, heavy quarks, charm and beauty, are created early in the collision and traverse the entire evolution thus making them a good probe of the medium. In p-Pb collisions, initial and final state effects related to the presence of cold nuclear matter can affect the heavy-flavor yield. Electrons from semileptonic decays of charm and beauty hadrons provide one way of measuring heavy flavor production in p-Pb collisions. The status of the current analysis of electrons from heavy flavor decays in p-Pb collisions, with particular emphasis on the electron identification, will be presented.