Toward an understanding of the single electron data measured at the BNL Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC)

2008/02/29 by Pol-Bernard Gossiaux, P. B. Gossiaux, J. Aichelin · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #High-Energy Particle Collisions Research #Particle physics theoretical and experimental studies #Quantum Chromodynamics and Particle Interactions #hep-ph

paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevc.78.014904

published as Phys.Rev.C78:014904,2008 · Accepted for publication in Physical Review C

arxiv created 2008/06/18 · openalex publication_date 2008/07/17 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/30

Abstract

High transverse momentum (p_T) single nonphotonic electrons which have been measured in the RHIC experiments come dominantly from heavy meson decay. The ratio of their p_T spectra in pp and AA collisions [R_AA(p_T)] reveals the energy loss of heavy quarks in the environment created by AA collisions. Using a fixed coupling constant and the Debye mass (m_D\ensuremath≈gT) as the infrared regulator, perturbative QCD (pQCD) calculations are not able to reproduce the data, neither the energy loss nor the azimuthal (v₂) distribution. Employing a running coupling constant and replacing the Debye mass by a more realistic hard thermal loop (HTL) calculation, we find a substantial increase in the collisional energy loss, which brings the v₂(p_T) distribution as well as R_AA(p_T) to values close to the experimental ones without excluding a contribution from radiative energy loss.

Citations

• Improving a radiative plus collisional energy loss model for application to RHIC and LHC
• Heavy Quark Energy Loss in a Nuclear Medium
• Charmonia enhancement in quark–gluon plasma with improved description of c-quarks phase distribution
• QCD Collisional Energy Loss Reexamined
• Equilibrium Distribution of Heavy Quarks in Fokker-Planck Dynamics

Cited by

• Gluon bremsstrahlung by heavy quarks: Its effects on transport coefficients and equilibrium distribution