2006/06/09 by Ralf Rapp, R. Rapp, Hendrik van Hees +1 · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #High-Energy Particle Collisions Research #Particle physics theoretical and experimental studies #Quantum Chromodynamics and Particle Interactions #hep-ph #nucl-ex #nucl-th
paper · pdf · doi:10.1088/0954-3899/32/12/s43
published as J.Phys. G32 (2006) S351-S358 · 8 pages, 14 figures, contribution to the proceedings for the "International Conference on Strangeness in Quark Matter 2006"
arxiv created 2006/06/09 · openalex publication_date 2006/11/17 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/30
We discuss recent developments in assessing heavy-quark interactions in the quark–gluon plasma (QGP). While induced gluon radiation is expected to be the main energy-loss mechanism for fast-moving quarks, we focus on elastic scattering which prevails towards lower energies, evaluating both perturbative (gluon-exchange) and nonperturbative (resonance formation) interactions in the QGP. The latter are treated within an effective model for D - and B -meson resonances above T c as motivated by current QCD lattice calculations. Pertinent diffusion and drag constants, following from a Fokker–Planck equation, are implemented into an expanding fireball model for Au–Au collisions at RHIC using relativistic Langevin simulations. Heavy quarks are hadronized in a combined fragmentation and coalescence framework, and resulting electron-decay spectra are compared to recent RHIC data. A reasonable description of both nuclear suppression factors and elliptic flow up to momenta of ∼5 GeV supports the notion of a strongly interacting QGP created at RHIC. Consequences and further tests of the proposed resonance interactions are discussed.