Novel heavy flavor suppression mechanisms in the QGP

Abstract

We revisit the question of the measured, unexpectedly large, heavy flavor suppression, $R_{AA}(p_T)\ll 1$, in nucleus-nucleus collisions at RHIC and compare two new theoretical approaches to the $D$- and $B$-meson quenching. In the first model, radiative energy loss, collisional energy loss and heavy quark-resonance interactions are combined to evaluate the drag and diffusion coefficients in the quark-gluon plasma and the mixed phase. These are applied in a relativistic Fokker-Planck equation to simulate the heavy $c$- and $b$-quark suppression rate and elliptic flow $v_2(p_T)$. In the second model, the fragmentation probability for heavy quarks and the medium-induced decay probability for heavy hadrons are derived. These are implemented in a set of coupled rate equations that describe the attenuation of the observable spectra from the collisional dissociation of heavy mesons in the QGP. An improved description of the non-photonic electron $R_{AA}(p_T)$ at RHIC can be obtained. In contrast to previous results, the latter approach predicts suppression of $B$-mesons comparable to that of $D$-mesons at transverse momenta as low as $p_T\sim 10$ GeV.

4 pages, 4 figures. Quark Matter 2006 proceedings

References in corpus (4)

• Collisional Energy Loss in a Finite Size QCD Matter
• Testing the theory of QGP-induced energy loss at RHIC and the LHC
• Open heavy flavor production at RHIC
• STAR Results on High Transverse Momentum, Heavy Flavor and Electromagnetic Probes

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• Heavy-Quark Kinetics in the QGP at LHC
• Nonperturbative Heavy-Quark Diffusion in the Quark-Gluon Plasma
• T-matrix approach to heavy quark diffusion in the QGP
• Temperature dependent formation-time approach for ${\rm Y}$ suppression at energies available at the CERN Large Hadraon Collider
• Heavy Quark Radiation in the Quark-Gluon Plasma in the Moliere Theory: Angular Distribution of the Radiation