Reexamining charm versus bottom quark energy loss inside a color-deconfined medium

Abstract

The general intuition that heavier partons suffer weaker energy loss inside a quark-gluon plasma (QGP) medium is critically re-examined. Within a linear Boltzmann transport model that includes both Yukawa and string types of interactions between heavy quarks and the QGP, we find that while the radiative energy loss is suppressed by the parton mass, heavier partons can experience stronger string potential scatterings with the medium. Their competition may result in less energy loss of bottom quarks than charm quarks at low transverse momentum ($p_{\mathrm{T}}$) but an inverse order at high $p_{\mathrm{T}}$. Our model calculation shows a weaker nuclear modification on bottom particles than charm particles at low $p_{\mathrm{T}}$, as observed by both RHIC and LHC experiments, but predicts an opposite hierarchy at high $p_{\mathrm{T}}$. A larger momentum space transport coefficient ($\hat{q}$) and a smaller spatial diffusion coefficient ($D_{\mathrm{s}}$) are found for bottom quarks than for charm quarks.

9 pages, 7 figures

References in corpus (20)

• PYTHIA 6.4 Physics and Manual
• Towards an understanding of the RHIC single electron data
• Observation of $D^0$ meson nuclear modifications in Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{{}_{\mathrm{NN}}}}$ = 200 GeV
• Heavy-flavour spectra in high energy nucleus-nucleus collisions
• Open heavy flavor in Pb+Pb collisions at sqrt(s)=2.76 TeV within a transport model
• Static quark-antiquark potential in the quark-gluon plasma from lattice QCD
• A data-driven analysis for the temperature and momentum dependence of the heavy quark diffusion coefficient in relativistic heavy-ion collisions
• Heavy Quark Diffusion with Relativistic Langevin Dynamics in the Quark-Gluon Fluid
• Centrality and transverse momentum dependence of $D^0$-meson production at mid-rapidity in Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}=200\mathrm{GeV}$
• Direct observation of the dead-cone effect in QCD
• Prompt D${}^0$, D${}^{+}$, and D${}^{\ast +}$ production in Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}$ = 5.02 TeV
• (3+1)-D viscous hydrodynamics CLVisc at finite net baryon density: identified particle spectra, anisotropic flows and flow fluctuations across BES energies
• Linear Boltzmann transport for jet propagation in the quark-gluon plasma: Inelastic processes and jet modification
• QLBT: A linear Boltzmann transport model for heavy quarks in a quark-gluon plasma of quasi-particles
• Constraining $\eta /s$ through high-p${}_{\perp }$ theory and data
• Constraining the equation of state with heavy quarks in the quasi-particle model of QCD matter
• Evidence of Mass Ordering of Charm and Bottom Quark Energy Loss in Au+Au Collisions at RHIC
• Charm and beauty in the deconfined plasma from quenched lattice QCD
• Measurements of azimuthal anisotropy of nonprompt D${}^0$ mesons in PbPb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}$ = 5.02 TeV
• Measurement of electrons from open heavy-flavor hadron decays in Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}=200$ GeV with the STAR detector

Cited by in corpus (2)

• An improved linear Boltzmann transport model for hadron and jet suppression in ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions
• Nuclear modification of $B_c$ mesons in relativistic heavy-ion collisions based on a linear Boltzmann transport model