Energy Loss and Flow of Heavy Quarks in Au+Au Collisions at \sqrt{s_{NN}} = 200 GeV

The PHENIX collaboration Adare, A. ; Afanasiev, S. ; Aidala, C. ; et al.
Phys.Rev.Lett. 98 (2007) 172301, 2007.
Inspire Record 731668 DOI 10.17182/hepdata.57287

The PHENIX experiment at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) has measured electrons from heavy flavor (charm and bottom) decays for 0.3 < p_T < 9 GeV/c at midrapidity (|y| < 0.35) in Au+Au collisions at sqrt(s_NN) = 200 GeV. The nuclear modification factor R_AA relative to p+p collisions shows a strong suppression in central Au+Au collisions, indicating substantial energy loss of heavy quarks in the medium produced at RHIC. A large azimuthal anisotropy, v_2, with respect to the reaction plane is observed for 0.5 < p_T < 5 GeV/c indicating non-zero heavy flavor elliptic flow. Both R_AA and v_2 show a p_T dependence different from those of neutral pions. A comparison to transport models which simultaneously describe R_AA(p_T) and v_2(p_T) suggests that the viscosity to entropy density ratio is close to the conjectured quantum lower bound, i.e., near a perfect fluid.

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Nuclear modification of electron spectra and implications for heavy quark energy loss in Au + Au collisions at s(NN)**(1/2) = 200-GeV.

The PHENIX collaboration Adler, S.S. ; Afanasiev, S. ; Aidala, C. ; et al.
Phys.Rev.Lett. 96 (2006) 032301, 2006.
Inspire Record 695305 DOI 10.17182/hepdata.57257

The PHENIX experiment has measured mid-rapidity transverse momentum spectra (0.4 < p_T < 5.0 GeV/c) of electrons as a function of centrality in Au+Au collisions at sqrt(s_NN)=200 GeV. Contributions from photon conversions and from light hadron decays, mainly Dalitz decays of pi^0 and eta mesons, were removed. The resulting non-photonic electron spectra are primarily due to the semi-leptonic decays of hadrons carrying heavy quarks. Nuclear modification factors were determined by comparison to non-photonic electrons in p+p collisions. A significant suppression of electrons at high p_T is observed in central Au+Au collisions, indicating substantial energy loss of heavy quarks.

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