Heavy quark ‘energy loss’ and ‘flow’ in a QCD matter at RHIC

Abstract

The PHENIX experiment at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) has measured electrons from heavy-flavor decays for 0.3 < pT < 9 GeV/c at mid rapidity (|y|< 0.35) in collisions at . The nuclear modification factor relative to collisions shows a strong suppression in central collisions, indicating substantial energy loss of heavy quarks in the medium produced at the RHIC. A large azimuthal anisotropy, v2, with respect to the reaction plane is measured for 0.5 < pT < 5 GeV, indicating nonzero heavy-flavor elliptic flow. and v2(pT) for heavy quarks might give more constrains on the existing models of heavy quark production and tell us more on the properties of the medium which has been created at the RHIC. These recent results will be compared to various models for medium effects on the charm and bottom quarks.