Recent Developments in Open Heavy Flavor Experiments

Abstract

Heavy quark program has been one of the focused programs at RHIC and LHC to study detail properties of strongly-coupled Quark-Gluon Plasma (sQGP). I will review recent experimental achievements on open heavy flavor production in heavy ion collisions, including measurements of nuclear modification factors, elliptic flow and heavy quark triggered correlations. By comparing with most sophisticated theoretical models, I will comment on physics implications on current understanding of sQGP medium properties. In the end, I will discuss future plans of utilizing heavy flavor quarks to probe emergent QCD properties in heavy ion collisions at both RHIC and LHC.