D mesons in non-central heavy-ion collisions: fluctuating vs. averaged initial conditions

TL;DR

This paper investigates how fluctuating initial conditions affect D meson suppression and flow in non-central heavy-ion collisions, revealing that fluctuations reduce energy loss and alter anisotropic flow patterns.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed analysis of fluctuating versus averaged initial conditions in heavy-quark propagation models, highlighting their impact on D meson suppression and flow.

Findings

Fluctuating initial conditions increase the nuclear modification factor at intermediate and high transverse momenta.

Elliptic flow at small transverse momenta is reduced due to fluctuations.

Energy loss of heavy quarks is effectively decreased by initial condition fluctuations.

Abstract

The suppression of D mesons in non-central heavy-ion collisions is investigated. The anisotropy in collisions at finite impact parameter leads to an ordering of all-angle, in- and out-of-plane nuclear modification factors due to the different in-medium path lengths. Within our MC@sHQ+EPOS model of heavy-quark propagation in the QGP we demonstrate that fluctuating initial conditions lead to an effective reduction of the energy loss of heavy quarks, which is seen in a larger nuclear modification factor at intermediate and high transverse momenta. The elliptic flow at small transverse momenta is reduced.