Open heavy flavor measurements at STAR

David Tlustý,L Bravina,Y Foka,S Kabana

doi:10.1051/epjconf/20149504067

Abstract

In relativistic heavy ion collisions at RHIC, heavy quarks are expected to be created from initial hard scatterings. Since heavy quarks have large masses, long life time, and negligible annihilation due to their small population, the number of heavy quarks is conserved during whole medium evolution. The interaction between heavy quarks and the medium is sensitive to the early medium dynamics, therefore heavy quarks are suggested as an ideal probe to quantify the properties of the strongly interacting QCD matter.

Highlights

In relativistic heavy ion collisions at RHIC, heavy quarks are expected to be created from initial hard scatterings
Since heavy quarks have large masses, long life time, and negligible annihilation due to their small population, the number of heavy quarks is conserved during whole medium evolution
The interaction between heavy quarks and the medium is sensitive to the medium properties, such as the transport coefficients, during its early stages when the QGP phase is expected to exist in heavy-ion collisions [1]

Summary

Introduction

In relativistic heavy ion collisions at RHIC, heavy quarks are expected to be created from initial hard scatterings. The interaction between heavy quarks and the medium is sensitive to the medium properties, such as the transport coefficients, during its early stages when the QGP phase is expected to exist in heavy-ion collisions [1]. Measurements [3,4,5] show significant suppression at high transverse momentum, pT , in central heavy ion collisions, similar to that of light hadrons. This has led to the reconsideration of the effect of heavy-quark collisional energy loss [6, 7]

Methods

Results

Conclusion