No Arabic abstract
Open heavy flavor hadrons provide unique probes of the medium produced in ultra-relativistic heavy-ion collisions. Due to their increased mass relative to light-flavor hadrons, long lifetime, and early production in hard-scattering interactions, they provide access to the full evolution of the partonic medium formed in heavy-ion collisions. This paper reports two-dimensional (2D) angular correlations between neutral $D$-mesons and unidentified charged particles produced in minimum-bias Au+Au collisions at $sqrt{s_{rm NN}}$ = 200 GeV. $D^0$ and $bar{D}^0$ mesons are reconstructed via their weak decay to $K^{mp} pi^{pm}$ using the Heavy Flavor Tracker (HFT) in the Solenoidal Tracker at RHIC (STAR) experiment. Correlations on relative pseudorapidity and azimuth $(Deltaeta,Deltaphi)$ are presented for peripheral, mid-central and central collisions with $D^0$ transverse momentum from 2 to 10 GeV/$c$. Attention is focused on the 2D peaked correlation structure near the triggered $D^0$-meson, the {em near-side} (NS) peak, which serves as a proxy for a charm-quark containing jet. The correlated NS yield of charged particles per $D^0$-meson and the 2D widths of the NS peak increase significantly from peripheral to central collisions. These results are compared with similar correlations using unidentified charged particles, consisting primarily of light-flavor hadrons, at similar trigger particle momenta. Similar per-trigger yields and widths of the NS correlation peak are observed. The present results provide additional evidence that $D^0$-mesons undergo significant interactions with the medium formed in heavy-ion collision and show, for the first time, significant centrality evolution of the NS 2D peak in the correlations of particles associated with a heavy-flavor hadron produced in these collisions.
Due to the large masses, heavy-flavor quarks are dominantly produced in initial hard scattering processes and experience the whole evolution of the medium produced in heavy-ion collisions at RHIC energies. They are also expected to thermalize slower than light-flavor quarks. Thus the measurement of heavy quark production and azimuthal anisotropy can provide important insights into the medium properties through their interactions with the medium. In these proceedings, we report measurements of $D^0$ production and elliptic flow ($v_2$) via topological reconstruction using STARs recently installed Heavy Flavor Tracker (HFT). The new measurement of the nuclear modification factor ($R_{AA}$) of $D^0$ mesons in central Au+Au collisions at $sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 200 GeV confirms the strong suppression at high transverse momenta ($p_{T}$) reported in the previous publication with much improved precision. We also report the measurement of elliptic flow for $D^0$ mesons in a wide transverse momentum range in 0-80% minimum-bias Au+Au collisions. The $D^0$ elliptic flow is finite for $p_{T}$ $>$ 2 GeV/c and is systematically below that of light hadrons in the same centrality interval. Furthermore, several theoretical calculations are compared to both $R_{AA}$ and $v_2$ measurements, and the charm quark diffusion coefficient is inferred to be between 2 and $sim$12.
Heavy-flavor quarks are dominantly produced in initial hard scattering processes and experience the whole evolution of the system in heavy-ion collisions at RHIC energies. Thus they are suggested to be an excellent probe to the medium properties through their interaction with the medium. In this proceedings, we report our first measurement of $D^0$ production via topological reconstruction using STARs recently installed Heavy Flavor Tracker (HFT). We also report our new measurement of Nuclear Modification Factor ($R_{AA}$) of $D^0$ mesons in central Au+Au collisions at $sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 200 GeV as a function of transverse momentum ($p_{T}$). New results confirm the strong suppression at high $p_{T}$ with a much improved precision, and show that the $R_{AA}$ at high $p_{T}$ are comparable with light hadrons ($pi$) and with D meson measurements at the LHC. Furthermore, several theoretical calculations are compared to our data, and with charm diffusion coefficient 2${pi}TD_{S}$ $sim$ 2-12 can reproduce both the $D^0$ $R_{AA}$ and $v_2$ data in Au+Au collisions at RHIC.
Yields, correlation shapes, and mean transverse momenta pt{} of charged particles associated with intermediate to high-pt{} trigger particles ($2.5 < pt < 10$ GeVc) in d+Au and Au+Au collisions at $snn=200$ GeV are presented. For associated particles at higher $pt gtrsim 2.5$ GeVc, narrow correlation peaks are seen in d+Au and Au+Au, indicating that the main production mechanism is jet fragmentation. At lower associated particle $pt < 2$ GeVc, a large enhancement of the near- ($dphi sim 0$) and away-side ($dphi sim pi$) associated yields is found, together with a strong broadening of the away-side azimuthal distributions in Au+Au collisions compared to d+Au measurements, suggesting that other particle production mechanisms play a role. This is further supported by the observed significant softening of the away-side associated particle yield distribution at $dphi sim pi$ in central Au+Au collisions.
We report the first measurement of charmed-hadron ($D^0$) production via the hadronic decay channel ($D^0rightarrow K^- + pi^+$) in Au+Au collisions at $sqrt{s_{_{mathrm{NN}}}}$ = 200,GeV with the STAR experiment. The charm production cross-section per nucleon-nucleon collision at mid-rapidity scales with the number of binary collisions, $N_{bin}$, from $p$+$p$ to central Au+Au collisions. The $D^0$ meson yields in central Au+Au collisions are strongly suppressed compared to those in $p$+$p$ scaled by $N_{bin}$, for transverse momenta $p_{T}>3$ GeV/$c$, demonstrating significant energy loss of charm quarks in the hot and dense medium. An enhancement at intermediate $p_{T}$ is also observed. Model calculations including strong charm-medium interactions and coalescence hadronization describe our measurements.
The PHENIX experiment has measured $phi$ meson production in $d$$+$Au collisions at $sqrt{s_{_{NN}}}=200$ GeV using the dimuon and dielectron decay channels. The $phi$ meson is measured in the forward (backward) $d$-going (Au-going) direction, $1.2<y<2.2$ ($-2.2<y<-1.2$) in the transverse-momentum ($p_T$) range from 1--7 GeV/$c$, and at midrapidity $|y|<0.35$ in the $p_T$ range below 7 GeV/$c$. The $phi$ meson invariant yields and nuclear-modification factors as a function of $p_T$, rapidity, and centrality are reported. An enhancement of $phi$ meson production is observed in the Au-going direction, while suppression is seen in the $d$-going direction, and no modification is observed at midrapidity relative to the yield in $p$$+$$p$ collisions scaled by the number of binary collisions. Similar behavior was previously observed for inclusive charged hadrons and open heavy flavor indicating similar cold-nuclear-matter effects.