Heavy Flavor Physics in PHENIX

Abstract

Heavy quarks are good probes of the hot and dense medium created in relativistic heavy ion collisions since they are mainly generated early in the collision and interact with the medium in all collision stages. In addition, heavy flavor quarkonia production is thought to be uniquely sensitive to the deconfined medium of the Quark Gluon Plasma (QGP) through color screening. Heavy quark production has been studied by the PHENIX experiment at RHIC via measurements of single leptons from semi-leptonic decays, in both the electron channel at mid-rapidity and in the muon channel at forward rapidity. Large suppression and azimuthal anisotropy of single electrons have been observed in Au+Au collisions at 200 GeV. These results suggest a large energy loss and strong flow of the heavy quarks in the hot, dense matter. The PHENIX experiment has also measured J/psi production in p + p, d+Au, Cu+Cu, and Au+Au collisions at energies up to 200 GeV. In central Au+Au at 200 GeV, more suppression is observed at forward rapidity than at central rapidity. This can be interpreted either as a sign of quark recombination, or as a hint of additional cold nuclear matter effects. Selected PHENIX results on open heavy flavor and heavy quarkonia production in p + p, d+Au, Cu+Cu, and Au+Au collisions are presented. The status of the recent PHENIX upgrade of the central Silicon Vertex Tracker (VTX) and its performance are elucidated.

The 11th International Conference on Nucleus-Nucleus Collisions (NN2012), May 27th to June 2nd, 2012 in San Antonio, Texas, U.S.A; Journal of Physics : Conference Series (2012)

References in corpus (10)

• J/psi Production vs Centrality, Transverse Momentum, and Rapidity in Au+Au Collisions at sqrt(s_NN) = 200 GeV
• Measurement of high-p_T Single Electrons from Heavy-Flavor Decays in p+p Collisions at sqrt(s) = 200 GeV
• A light-cone wavefunction approach to open heavy flavor dynamics in QCD matter
• Inclusive cross section and double helicity asymmetry for π^0 production in p+p collisions at sqrt(s)=200 GeV: Implications for the polarized gluon distribution in the proton
• Common Suppression Pattern of eta and pi^0 Mesons at High Transverse Momentum in Au+Au Collisions at sqrt(s_NN) = 200 GeV
• Centrality Dependence of pi^0 and eta Production at Large Transverse Momentum in sqrt(s_NN) = 200 GeV d+Au Collisions
• J/psi Production in sqrt (s_NN)= 200 GeV Cu+Cu Collisions
• Nuclear-Modification Factor for Open-Heavy-Flavor Production at Forward Rapidity in Cu+Cu Collisions at sqrt(s_NN)=200 GeV
• Status and Performance of New Silicon Stripixel Detector for the PHENIX Experiment at RHIC: Beta Source, Cosmic-rays and Proton Beam at 120 GeV
• Recent Results from PHENIX Experiment at RHIC: Exploring the QCD Medium