Energy loss of charm quarks in the quark-gluon plasma: Collisional vs radiative losses

Journal Article · Fri Jul 01 04:00:00 EDT 2005 · Physical Review. C, Nuclear Physics

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevC.72.014905· OSTI ID:20698848

Mustafa, Munshi G ^[1]

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1. Theory Group, Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics, 1/AF Bidhan Nagar, Kolkata 700 064 (India)

In considering the collisional energy loss rates of heavy quarks from hard light parton interactions, we computed the total energy loss of a charm quark for a static medium. For the energy range E{approx}5-10 GeV of charm quark, it proved to be almost the same order as that of radiative ones estimated to a first-order opacity expansion. The collisional energy loss becomes much more important for lower energy charm quarks, and this feature could be very interesting for the phenomenology of hadrons spectra. Using such collisional energy loss rates, we estimate the momentum loss distribution employing a Fokker-Planck equation and the total energy loss of a charm quark for an expanding quark-gluon plasma under conditions resembling the energies presently available at the BNL Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider. The fractional collisional energy loss is found to be suppressed by a factor of 5 as compared to the static case and does not depend linearly on the system size. We also investigate the heavy to light hadrons D/{pi} ratio at moderately large (5-10 GeV/c) transverse momenta and comment on its enhancement.

• OSTI ID: 20698848
• Journal Information: Physical Review. C, Nuclear Physics, Journal Name: Physical Review. C, Nuclear Physics Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 72; ISSN 0556-2813; ISSN PRVCAN
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS
B QUARKS
BROOKHAVEN RHIC
C QUARKS
D MESONS
DISTRIBUTION
ENERGY LOSSES
FOKKER-PLANCK EQUATION
GEV RANGE
HEAVY ION REACTIONS
OPACITY
PARTON MODEL
PARTONS
PIONS
QUARK MATTER
T QUARKS
TRANSVERSE MOMENTUM