Heavy Quark Production from Jet Conversions in a Quark-Gluon Plasma

TL;DR

This paper explores how light quarks and gluons can convert into heavy quarks within a quark-gluon plasma, affecting high-momentum charm and bottom quark production in heavy ion collisions.

Contribution

It introduces a Fokker-Planck based method to calculate light-to-heavy jet conversion rates and assesses their impact on heavy quark yields at RHIC and LHC.

Findings

Light-to-heavy jet conversion rates are significant in quark-gluon plasma.

Conversion processes influence high-$p_T$ charm and bottom quark production.

Results suggest jet conversions can serve as probes of the medium's properties.

Abstract

Recently, it has been demonstrated that the chemical composition of jets in heavy ion collisions is significantly altered compared to jets in the vacuum. This signal can be used to probe the medium formed in nuclear collisions. In this study we investigate the possibility that fast light quarks and gluons can convert to heavy quarks when passing through a quark gluon plasma. We study the rate of light to heavy jet conversions in a consistent Fokker-Planck framework and investigate their impact on the production of high-$p_T$ charm and bottom quarks at RHIC and LHC.