Heavy-flavor production in heavy-ion collisions and implications for the properties of hot QCD matter

TL;DR

This paper reviews experimental measurements of open heavy-flavor production in heavy-ion collisions at RHIC and LHC, discussing how these results inform our understanding of the properties of hot QCD matter.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of experimental data on heavy-flavor observables and compares various theoretical models to interpret the properties of hot dense QCD matter.

Findings

Heavy-flavor yields are suppressed in heavy-ion collisions.

Transverse momentum distributions show significant modifications.

Azimuthal anisotropy indicates strong interactions with the medium.

Abstract

Hadrons carrying open heavy flavor, i.e. single charm or bottom quarks, are among the key diagnostic tools available today for the hot and dense state of strongly interacting matter which is produced in collisions of heavy atomic nuclei at ultra-relativistic energies. First systematic heavy-flavor measurements in nucleus-nucleus collisions and the reference proton-proton system at Brookhaven National Laboratory's (BNL) Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) have led to tantalizing results. These studies are now continued and extended at RHIC and at CERN's Large Hadron Collider (LHC), where considerably higher collision energies are available. This review focuses on experimental results on open heavy-flavor observables at RHIC and the LHC published until July 2012. Yields of heavy-flavor hadrons and their decay products, their transverse momentum and rapidity distributions, as well as their azimuthal distributions with respect to the reaction plane in heavy-ion collisions are investigated. Various theoretical approaches are confronted with the data and implications for the properties of the hot and dense medium produced in ultra-relativistic heavy-ion collisions are discussed.