  The ALICE Collaboration at the LHC studies heavy-ion collisions to
investigate the properties of the Quark-Gluon Plasma (QGP). Heavy quarks (charm
and beauty) are effective probes for this purpose. Both their energy loss in
the medium as well as their possible thermalization yield information about the
medium properties. Experimentally, the reconstruction of hadrons with charm
valence quarks is possible. For hadrons with beauty valence quarks a promising
strategy is the measurement of their decay electrons. To separate these from
the background electrons (mainly from charm hadron decays, photon conversions
or light-meson decays) the large decay length of beauty hadrons can be
utilized. It leads to a relatively large typical impact parameter of the decay
electrons. By comparing the impact parameter distribution of the signal
electrons with those from the background sources, the signal can be
statistically separated from the background. For this purpose a maximum
likelihood fit is employed using impact parameter distribution templates from
simulations. The resulting nuclear modification factor for electrons from
beauty-hadron decays shows a sizeable suppression for p_T > 3 GeV, albeit still
with large uncertainties.
