Production, elliptic flow and energy loss of heavy quarks in the quark-gluon plasma

Abstract

Production, elliptic flow and the nuclear modification factor of charm and bottom quarks are studied in central and non-central heavy-ion collisions at RHIC and LHC using the partonic transport model Boltzmann Approach of MultiParton Scatterings (BAMPS). Employing an initial heavy quark yield obtained with PYTHIA the full space-time evolution of charm and bottom quarks in the quark-gluon plasma (QGP) is carried out with BAMPS, taking also secondary production in the QGP into account. Only elastic collisions of heavy quarks with particles from the medium cannot describe the experimentally observed elliptic flow and nuclear modification factor. However, using an improved Debye screening and the running coupling yields a result which is much closer to data.