Cross section for $b\bar{b}$ production via dielectrons in d$+$Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{{}_{NN}}}=200$ GeV

Abstract

We report a measurement of $e^{+}{e}^{-}$ pairs from semileptonic heavy-flavor decays in $d$$+$Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{{}_{NN}}}=200$ GeV. Exploring the mass and transverse-momentum dependence of the yield, the bottom decay contribution can be isolated from charm, and quantified by comparison to {\sc pythia} and {\sc mc@nlo} simulations. The resulting $b\bar{b}$-production cross section is $\ddot{I}{ƒ}_{b\bar{b}}^{d\mathrm{Au}}=1.37\pm 0.28(\mathrm{stat})\pm 0.46(\mathrm{syst})$~mb, which is equivalent to a nucleon-nucleon cross section of $\ddot{I}{ƒ}_{bb}^{NN}=3.4\pm 0.8(\mathrm{stat})\pm 1.1(\mathrm{syst})\hat{I}¼$b.

375 authors, 16 pages, 8 figures, 7 tables, 2008 data. Submitted to Phys. Rev. C Plain text data tables for the points plotted in figures for this and previous PHENIX publications are (or will be) publicly available at http://www.phenix.bnl.gov/papers.html