2009/04/30 by Rishi Sharma, Ivan Vitev, Ben-Wei Zhang · 4 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #High-Energy Particle Collisions Research #Particle physics theoretical and experimental studies #Quantum Chromodynamics and Particle Interactions #hep-ph #nucl-th
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevc.80.054902
published as Phys.Rev.C80:054902,2009 · As published in Physical Review. Significantly extended: 19 pages, 9 .eps figures, 3 tables. Technical details and appendix added
arxiv created 2009/11/02 · openalex publication_date 2009/11/04 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We calculate the lowest-order charm and beauty parton distribution functions in and fragmentation functions into D and B mesons using the operator definitions of factorized perturbative quantum chromodynamics (QCD). In the vacuum, we find the leading corrections that arise from the structure of the final-state hadrons. Quark-antiquark potentials extracted from the lattice are employed to demonstrate the existence of open heavy flavor bound-state solutions in the quark-gluon plasma in the vicinity of the critical temperature. We provide first results for the in-medium modification of the heavy-quark distribution and decay probabilities in a comoving plasma. In an improved perturbative QCD description of heavy-flavor dynamics in the thermal medium, we combine D- and B-meson formation and dissociation with parton-level charm and beauty quark quenching to obtain predictions for the heavy-meson and nonphotonic-electron suppression in Cu+Cu and Pb+Pb collisions at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider and the Large Hadron Collider, respectively.