Energy Loss and Flow of Heavy Quarks in Au+Au Collisions at {radical}(s{sub NN})=200 GeV

Journal Article · 27 April 2007 · Physical Review Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PHYSREVLETT.98.172301· OSTI ID:20951270

Adare, A; Bickley, A A; Ellinghaus, F; Kelly, S; Kinney, E; Nagle, J L; Seele, J; Wysocki, M ^[1]; Afanasiev, S; Isupov, A; Litvinenko, A; Malakhov, A; Peresedov, V; Rukoyatkin, P; Zolin, L ^[2]; Aidala, C; Bjorndal, M T; Chi, C Y; Cole, B A; D'Enterria, D ^[3]

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1. University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado 80309 (United States)
2. Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, 141980 Dubna (Russian Federation)
3. Columbia University, New York, New York 10027 (United States) and Nevis Laboratories, Irvington, New York 10533 (United States)

The PHENIX experiment at the BNL Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) has measured electrons with 0.3<p{sub T}<9 GeV/c at midrapidity (vertical bar y vertical bar <0.35) from heavy-flavor (charm and bottom) decays in Au+Au collisions at {radical}(s{sub NN})=200 GeV. The nuclear modification factor R{sub AA} relative to p+p collisions shows a strong suppression in central Au+Au collisions, indicating substantial energy loss of heavy quarks in the medium produced at RHIC energies. A large azimuthal anisotropy v{sub 2} with respect to the reaction plane is observed for 0.5<p{sub T}<5 GeV/c indicating substantial heavy-flavor elliptic flow. Both R{sub AA} and v{sub 2} show a p{sub T} dependence different from those of neutral pions. A comparison to transport models which simultaneously describe R{sub AA}(p{sub T}) and v{sub 2}(p{sub T}) suggests that the viscosity to entropy density ratio is close to the conjectured quantum lower bound, i.e., near a perfect fluid.

• OSTI ID: 20951270
• Journal Information: Physical Review Letters, Vol. 98, Issue 17; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.98.172301; (c) 2007 The American Physical Society; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0031-9007
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS
ANISOTROPY
B QUARKS
BNL
BROOKHAVEN RHIC
C QUARKS
COLLIDING BEAMS
COMPARATIVE EVALUATIONS
ELECTRONS
ENERGY LOSSES
ENTROPY
FLAVOR MODEL
GEV RANGE 100-1000
GOLD 197 BEAMS
GOLD 197 REACTIONS
GOLD 197 TARGET
IDEAL FLOW
PARTICLE DECAY
PIONS NEUTRAL
T QUARKS
TRANSPORT THEORY