Heavy-flavor correlation measurements via electron azimuthal correlations with open charm mesons

TL;DR

This paper presents the first measurement of heavy-flavor particle correlations in proton-proton collisions at RHIC, revealing insights into heavy quark production mechanisms through azimuthal electron and open charm meson correlations.

Contribution

It introduces a novel correlation technique using azimuthal correlations of decay electrons and open charm mesons to study heavy-flavor production mechanisms.

Findings

Two-peak azimuthal correlation structure observed

B decays contribute to near-side peak

Charm pair production dominates away-side

Abstract

We report first STAR measurement on two heavy-flavor particle correlations in p+p collisions at RHIC. Heavy-flavor (charm and bottom) events are identified and separated on a statistical basis by the azimuthal correlation of their decay electrons and open charm mesons, which yield important information about the underlying production mechanism. The azimuthal correlation distribution exhibits a two-peak structure which can be attributed to B decays on the near-side and predominantly charm pair production on the away-side. These assumptions are supported by dedicated simulations using PYTHIA and MC@NLO event generators. This novel correlation technique will allow comprehensive energy-loss measurements of heavy quarks in heavy-ion collisions.