Heavy-flavor production in heavy-ion collisions and implications for the properties of hot QCD matter

Abstract

Hadrons carrying open heavy flavor, i.e. single charm or bottom quarks, are among the key diagnostic tools available today for the hot and dense state of strongly interacting matter which is produced in collisions of heavy atomic nuclei at ultra-relativistic energies. First systematic heavy-flavor measurements in nucleus-nucleus collisions and the reference proton-proton system at Brookhaven National Laboratory's (BNL) Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) have led to tantalizing results. These studies are now continued and extended at RHIC and at CERN's Large Hadron Collider (LHC), where considerably higher collision energies are available. This review focuses on experimental results on open heavy-flavor observables at RHIC and the LHC published until July 2012. Yields of heavy-flavor hadrons and their decay products, their transverse momentum and rapidity distributions, as well as their azimuthal distributions with respect to the reaction plane in heavy-ion collisions are investigated. Various theoretical approaches are confronted with the data and implications for the properties of the hot and dense medium produced in ultra-relativistic heavy-ion collisions are discussed.

arXiv commentReview article, 78 pages, 38 figures

References in corpus (175)

• PYTHIA 6.4 Physics and Manual
• PYTHIA 6.2 Physics and Manual
• Experimental and Theoretical Challenges in the Search for the Quark Gluon Plasma: The STAR Collaboration's Critical Assessment of the Evidence from RHIC Collisions
• Formation of dense partonic matter in relativistic nucleus-nucleus collisions at RHIC: Experimental evaluation by the PHENIX collaboration
• A general framework for implementing NLO calculations in shower Monte Carlo programs: the POWHEG BOX
• Viscosity in Strongly Interacting Quantum Field Theories from Black Hole Physics
• Matching NLO QCD computations with Parton Shower simulations: the POWHEG method
• Quark Gluon Plasma an Color Glass Condensate at RHIC? The perspective from the BRAHMS experiment
• The PHOBOS Perspective on Discoveries at RHIC
• HERWIG 6.5: an event generator for Hadron Emission Reactions With Interfering Gluons (including supersymmetric processes)
• The order of the quantum chromodynamics transition predicted by the standard model of particle physics
• Glauber Modeling in High Energy Nuclear Collisions
• Color superconductivity in dense quark matter
• NJL-model analysis of dense quark matter
• Radiative energy loss and $p_{\perp }$-broadening of high energy partons in nuclei
• New Forms of QCD Matter Discovered at RHIC
• Viscosity Information from Relativistic Nuclear Collisions: How Perfect is the Fluid Observed at RHIC?
• Suppression of Hadrons with Large Transverse Momentum in Central Au+Au Collisions at $sqrt {s sub {sub {NN}}}_ = 130 GeV
• Flow Study in Relativistic Nuclear Collisions by Fourier Expansion of Azimuthal Particle Distributions
• Radial and elliptic flow at RHIC: further predictions
• Elliptic flow of charged particles in Pb-Pb collisions at 2.76 TeV
• Strange Quark Matter and Compact Stars
• The QCD transition temperature: results with physical masses in the continuum limit
• EPS09 - a New Generation of NLO and LO Nuclear Parton Distribution Functions
• Conformal Relativistic Viscous Hydrodynamics: Applications to RHIC results at sqrt(s_NN) = 200 GeV
• Critical point of QCD at finite T and μ, lattice results for physical quark masses
• Energy loss of a heavy quark moving through N=4 supersymmetric Yang-Mills plasma
• The p_T Spectrum in Heavy-Flavour Hadroproduction
• Heavy quark colorimetry of QCD matter
• How Much do Heavy Quarks Thermalize in a Heavy Ion Collision?
• Measurement of the J/Psi Meson and b-Hadron Production Cross Sections in ppbar Collisions at sqrt s = 1960 GeV
• Evidence from d+Au measurements for final-state suppression of high $p_T$ hadrons in Au+Au collisions at RHIC
• Higher harmonic anisotropic flow measurements of charged particles in Pb-Pb collisions at 2.76 TeV
• Drag force in AdS/CFT
• Theoretical predictions for charm and bottom production at the LHC
• Energy Loss and Flow of Heavy Quarks in Au+Au Collisions at sqrt(s_NN) = 200 GeV
• Equation of state and QCD transition at finite temperature
• (Non)Thermal Aspects of Charmonium Production and a New Look at J/$\psi$ Suppression
• Matching NLO QCD and parton showers in heavy flavour production
• Suppression of charged particle production at large transverse momentum in central Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}=2.76$ TeV
• Enhanced J/Psi Production in Deconfined Quark Matter
• Study of high-pT charged particle suppression in PbPb compared to pp collisions at sqrt(sNN)=2.76 TeV
• Suppressed pi^0 Production at Large Transverse Momentum in Central Au+Au Collisions at sqrt(s_NN) = 200 GeV
• Measurement of the azimuthal anisotropy for charged particle production in sqrt(s_NN) = 2.76 TeV lead-lead collisions with the ATLAS detector
• J/psi Production vs Centrality, Transverse Momentum, and Rapidity in Au+Au Collisions at sqrt(s_NN) = 200 GeV
• The Quark-Gluon Plasma in Equilibrium
• The p_T Spectrum in Heavy-Flavour Photoproduction
• Triangularity and Dipole Asymmetry in Heavy Ion Collisions
• Erratum: Transverse momentum and centrality dependence of high-\pt\ non-photonic electron suppression in Au+Au collisions at \sqrtsNN\ = 200 GeV
• Absence of Suppression in Particle Production at Large Transverse Momentum in sqrt(s_NN) = 200 GeV d+Au Collisions
• Calculating Quenching Weights
• Elastic, Inelastic, and Path Length Fluctuations in Jet Tomography
• Enhanced production of direct photons in Au+Au collisions at sqrt(s_NN)=200 GeV and implications for the initial temperature
• Heavy-Quark Probes of the Quark-Gluon Plasma at RHIC
• Charged-particle multiplicity density at mid-rapidity in central Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}$ = 2.76 TeV
• Measurements of Higher-Order Flow Harmonics in Au+Au Collisions at sqrt(s_NN) = 200 GeV
• The transition temperature in QCD
• Triangular flow in hydrodynamics and transport theory
• The theory and phenomenology of perturbative QCD based jet quenching
• Measurement of J/psi production in pp collisions at sqrt(s)=7 TeV
• Cronin Effect and High-p_T Suppression in pA Collisions
• Transverse Momentum Spectra in Au+Au and d+Au Collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$=200 GeV and the Pseudorapidity Dependence of High p${}_T$ Suppression
• Measurement of the pseudorapidity and transverse momentum dependence of the elliptic flow of charged particles in lead-lead collisions at sqrt(s_NN) = 2.76 TeV with the ATLAS detector
• Detailed measurement of the e+e- pair continuum in p+p and Au+Au collisions at sqrt(s_NN)=200 GeV and implications for direct photon production
• Two-pion Bose-Einstein correlations in central Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}$ = 2.76 TeV
• Nuclear Modification of Electron Spectra and Implications for Heavy Quark Energy Loss in Au+Au Collisions at sqrt(s_NN)=200 GeV
• Identified baryon and meson distributions at large transverse momenta from Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{{}_{NN}}}=200$ GeV
• Nonperturbative Heavy-Quark Diffusion in the Quark-Gluon Plasma
• Suppression of non-prompt J/psi, prompt J/psi, and Y(1S) in PbPb collisions at sqrt(sNN) = 2.76 TeV
• J/$\psi$ suppression at forward rapidity in Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}$ = 2.76 TeV
• Jet Quenching in Thin Quark-Gluon Plasmas I: Formalism
• Signals of the QCD phase transition in core-collapse supernovae
• Heavy Quark Production in p+p and Energy Loss and Flow of Heavy Quarks in Au+Au Collisions at sqrt(s_NN)=200 GeV
• Leading-particle suppression in high energy nucleus-nucleus collisions
• Measurement of the elliptic anisotropy of charged particles produced in PbPb collisions at nucleon-nucleon center-of-mass energy = 2.76 TeV
• Has the QCD Critical Point been Signaled by Observations at RHIC ?
• Towards an understanding of the RHIC single electron data
• Centrality Dependence of Direct Photon Production in sqrt(s_NN) = 200 GeV Au+Au Collisions
• Suppression of high transverse momentum D mesons in central Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}=2.76$ TeV
• Harmonic decomposition of two-particle angular correlations in Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}$ = 2.76 TeV
• Measurement of high-p_T Single Electrons from Heavy-Flavor Decays in p+p Collisions at sqrt(s) = 200 GeV
• Charmonium and bottomonium production in heavy-ion collisions
• Scaling properties of proton and anti-proton production in sqrt(s_NN) = 200 GeV Au + Au collisions
• Open charm yields in d+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{{}_{NN}}}=200$ GeV
• Energy Loss of Charm Quarks in the Quark-Gluon Plasma: Collisional vs Radiative
• Centrality dependence of charged hadron transverse momentum spectra in d+Au collisions at sqrt(s_NN) = 200 GeV
• Testing the Color Charge and Mass Dependence of Parton Energy Loss with Heavy-to-light Ratios at RHIC and LHC
• The Status of Lattice QCD at Finite Temperature
• Topology studies of hydrodynamics using two particle correlation analysis
• Measurement of the Inclusive Upsilon production cross section in pp collisions at sqrt(s)=7 TeV
• A light-cone wavefunction approach to open heavy flavor dynamics in QCD matter
• Measurement of Prompt Charm Meson Production Cross Sections in p anti-p Collisions at s**(1/2) = 1.96 TeV
• 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
• The centrality dependence of elliptic flow, the hydrodynamic limit, and the viscosity of hot QCD
• Heavy-flavour spectra in high energy nucleus-nucleus collisions
• Measurement of the differential cross-sections of inclusive, prompt and non-prompt J/psi production in proton-proton collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV
• Prompt and non-prompt J/psi production in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV
• Statistical hadronization of heavy quarks in ultra-relativistic nucleus-nucleus collisions
• Measurement of charm production at central rapidity in proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s}=2.76$ TeV
• Dihadron Tomography of High-Energy Nuclear Collisions in NLO pQCD
• Neutral pion and $\eta$ meson production in proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s}=0.9$ TeV and $\sqrt{s}=7$ TeV
• Measurement of sigma(pp -> b anti-b X) at \sqrt(s)=7 TeV in the forward region
• Measurement of single electrons and implications for charm production in Au+Au collisions at sqrt(s_NN)= 130 GeV
• Rapidity and transverse momentum dependence of inclusive J/$\psi$ production in pp collisions at $\sqrt{s}=7$ TeV
• Collisional dissociation of heavy mesons in dense QCD matter
• Measuring Shear Viscosity Using Transverse Momentum Correlations in Relativistic Nuclear Collisions
• How sensitive are high-pt electron spectra at RHIC to heavy quark energy loss?
• Competition of Heavy Quark Radiative and Collisional Energy Loss in Deconfined Matter
• Centrality Dependence of Charm Production from Single Electrons in Au+Au Collisions at sqrt(s_NN) = 200 GeV
• Measurements of $D^0$ and $D^{\ast }$ Production in $p$ + $p$ Collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 200 GeV
• Heavy flavor in heavy-ion collisions at RHIC and RHIC II
• Measurement of charm production at central rapidity in proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s}=7$ TeV
• $\mathcal{O}({\alpha }_s^3)$ analysis of inclusive jet and di-jet production in heavy ion reactions at the Large Hadron Collider
• Tomography of a quark gluon plasma at RHIC and LHC energies
• The b-bbar Production Cross Section and Angular Correlations in p-pbar Collisions at sqrt(s) = 1.8 TeV
• J/psi and psi(2S) production in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV
• Evidence for the production of thermal muon pairs with masses above 1 GeV/c^2 in 158A GeV Indium-Indium Collisions
• NA60 results on thermal dimuons
• Narrowing of the Balance Function with Centrality in Au+Au Collisions at sqrt(sNN) = 130 GeV
• Heavy Flavour Hadro-Production from Fixed-Target to Collider Energies
• Production of muons from heavy flavour decays at forward rapidity in pp and Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 2.76 TeV
• Measurement of the B+ Production Cross Section in pp Collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV
• Jet Flavor Tomography of Quark Gluon Plasmas at RHIC and LHC
• Study of QCD thermodynamics at finite density by Taylor expansion
• Nuclear Effects on Hadron Production in d+Au and p+p Collisions at sqrt(s_NN)=200 GeV
• Measurement of Bottom versus Charm as a Function of Transverse Momentum with Electron-Hadron Correlations in p+p Collisions at sqrt(s)=200 GeV
• Measurement of prompt J/psi and beauty hadron production cross sections at mid-rapidity in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV
• Collective flow and long-range correlations in relativistic heavy ion collisions
• Testing AdS/CFT Deviations from pQCD Heavy Quark Energy Loss with Pb+Pb at LHC
• System size, energy and pseudorapidity dependence of directed and elliptic flow at RHIC
• Charmonium Suppression by Comover Scattering in Pb+Pb Collisions
• Super-horizon fluctuations and acoustic oscillations in relativistic heavy-ion collisions
• Reconciling open charm production at the Fermilab Tevatron with QCD
• Cold-nuclear-matter effcts on heavy-quark production in d+Au collisions at sqrt(s_NN)=200 GeV
• Dilepton mass spectra in p+p collisions at sqrt(s)= 200 GeV and the contribution from open charm
• Centrality Dependent Particle Production at $y=0$ and $y\sim 1$ in Au+Au Collisions at sqrt(sNN)=200GeV
• Heavy flavour decay muon production at forward rapidity in proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s}=7$ TeV
• Open and hidden charm in proton-nucleus and heavy-ion collisions
• Charmonium and open charm production in nuclear collisions at SPS/FAIR energies and the possible influence of a hot hadronic medium
• On Charm Production near the Phase Boundary
• Measurement of the Bottom contribution to non-photonic electron production in $p+p$ collisions at $\sqrt{s}$=200 GeV
• High energy scattering in Quantum Chromodynamics
• Measurement of the B0 production cross section in pp Collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV
• Modelling J/psi production and absorption in a microscopic nonequilibrium approach
• Measurement of electrons from semileptonic heavy-flavour hadron decays in pp collisions at $\sqrt{s}$= 7 TeV
• Probing the QCD equation of state with thermal photons in nucleus-nucleus collisions at RHIC
• Measurements of the electron and muon inclusive cross-sections in proton-proton collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV with the ATLAS detector
• Quenching and Tomography from RHIC to LHC
• Measurement of the Strange B Meson Production Cross Section with J/Psi phi Decays in pp Collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV
• Single Electrons from Heavy Flavor Decays in p+p Collisions at sqrt(s) = 200 GeV
• Measurement of identified pi^0 and inclusive photon v_2 and implication to the direct photon production in sqrt(s_NN) = 200 GeV Au+Au collisions
• High $p_T$ non-photonic electron production in $p$+$p$ collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 200 GeV
• Entropy production in high-energy heavy-ion collisions and the correlation of shear viscosity and thermalization time
• Testing pQCD and AdS/CFT Energy Loss at RHIC and LHC
• Jet quenching and elliptic flow at RHIC and LHC within a pQCD-based partonic transport model
• Measurement of the B+- production cross-section in pp collisions at sqrt(s)=7 TeV
• High transverse momentum suppression and surface effects in Cu+Cu and Au+Au collisions within the PQM model
• Inclusive b-hadron production cross section with muons in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV
• Hydro+Cascade, Flow, the Equation of State, Predictions and Data
• Using CMBR analysis tools for flow anisotropies in relativistic heavy-ion collisions
• Small Angle Muon and Bottom Quark Production in pbarp Collisions at sqrt(s) = 1.8 TeV
• Heavy-flavor dynamics in nucleus-nucleus collisions: from RHIC to LHC
• Open charm contribution to dilepton spectra produced in nuclear collisions at SPS energies
• Nuclear-Modification Factor for Open-Heavy-Flavor Production at Forward Rapidity in Cu+Cu Collisions at sqrt(s_NN)=200 GeV
• Suppression of Non-photonic Electrons from Enhancement of Charm Baryons in Heavy Ion Collisions
• Tomography of the Quark Gluon Plasma by Heavy Quarks
• Particle Production at Large Transverse Momentum with ALICE
• Consequences of a Lambda_c/D enhancement effect on the non-photonic electron nuclear modification factor in central heavy ion collisions at RHIC energy
• Why is the J/$\psi$ suppression enhanced at large transverse energy ?
• Measurement of D* Mesons in Jets from p+p Collisions at sqrt{s} = 200 GeV
• The saga of bottom production in proton-antiproton collisions
• Measuring the Upsilon Nuclear Modification Factor at STAR
• Pi0 and Eta measurement with photon conversions in ALICE in proton-proton collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV
• Measurement of the nuclear modification factor of electrons from heavy-flavour decays at mid-rapidity in Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}$ = 2.76 TeV with ALICE
• Jet quenching in relativistic heavy ion collisions

Cited by in corpus (17)

• Challenges in QCD matter physics - The Compressed Baryonic Matter experiment at FAIR
• Open Heavy Flavor in QCD Matter and in Nuclear Collisions
• Study of prompt D${}^0$ meson production in pPb collisions at $\sqrt{s}$=5 TeV
• An overview of the experimental study of quark-gluon matter in high-energy nucleus-nucleus collisions
• Measurement of electrons from semileptonic heavy-flavor hadron decays in pp collisions at $\sqrt{s}=2.76$ TeV
• Measurement of electrons from semileptonic heavy-flavour hadron decays at midrapidity in pp and Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}$ = 5.02 TeV
• Measurement of azimuthal anisotropy of muons from charm and bottom hadrons in Pb+Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}=5.02$ TeV with the ATLAS detector
• An overview of experimental results from ultra-relativistic heavy-ion collisions at the CERN LHC: hard probes
• Heavy quark diffusion in pre-equilibrium stage of heavy ion collisions
• Measurements of low-$p_{\mathrm{T}}$ electrons from semileptonic heavy-flavour hadron decays at mid-rapidity in pp and Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}$ = 2.76 TeV
• Measurement of charm and bottom production from semileptonic hadron decays in $p$$+$$p$ collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=200$ GeV
• Measurements of electrons from heavy-flavour hadron decays in pp, p-Pb and Pb-Pb collisions with ALICE at the LHC
• Measurements of azimuthal anisotropies at forward and backward rapidity with muons in high-multiplicity p-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}=8.16$ TeV
• Inclusive heavy-flavour production at central and forward rapidity in Xe-Xe collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}=5.44$ TeV
• Centrality dependent long-range angular correlations of intermediate-pT D-mesons and charged particles in pPb collisions at the LHC energy
• Measurement of the nuclear modification factor for muons from charm and bottom hadrons in Pb+Pb collisions at 5.02 TeV with the ATLAS detector
• Experimental summary for heavy flavor production