Production, elliptic flow and energy loss of heavy quarks in the quark-gluon plasma

TL;DR

This paper investigates how charm and bottom quarks are produced, flow, and lose energy in the quark-gluon plasma during heavy-ion collisions at RHIC and LHC, using a transport model to compare with experimental data.

Contribution

It introduces an improved modeling approach with enhanced Debye screening and running coupling to better match observed heavy quark behavior in the QGP.

Findings

Elastic collisions alone cannot explain experimental data.

Improved Debye screening and running coupling improve model accuracy.

Results closely match observed elliptic flow and nuclear modification factors.

Abstract

Production, elliptic flow and the nuclear modification factor of charm and bottom quarks are studied in central and non-central heavy-ion collisions at RHIC and LHC using the partonic transport model Boltzmann Approach of MultiParton Scatterings (BAMPS). Employing an initial heavy quark yield obtained with PYTHIA the full space-time evolution of charm and bottom quarks in the quark-gluon plasma (QGP) is carried out with BAMPS, taking also secondary production in the QGP into account. Only elastic collisions of heavy quarks with particles from the medium cannot describe the experimentally observed elliptic flow and nuclear modification factor. However, using an improved Debye screening and the running coupling yields a result which is much closer to data.