Measurements of $D_{S}^{\pm}$-meson production in Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 200 GeV in STAR

TL;DR

This paper reports the first measurements of the nuclear modification factor and elliptic flow of $D_s$ mesons in Au+Au collisions at 200 GeV, revealing potential strangeness enhancement effects in the quark-gluon plasma.

Contribution

It provides the first experimental data on $D_s$ meson production and flow at RHIC energies, comparing them with other mesons and theoretical models to explore strangeness effects.

Findings

$D_s$ $R_{AA}$ is systematically above unity.

Evidence of $D_s$ enhancement in Au+Au compared to $p+p$.

Comparison with ALICE results at higher energy.

Abstract

We present the first measurement of the nuclear modification factor $R_{AA}$ and elliptic flow $v_{2}$ of $D_{s}$ in Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 200 GeV with the STAR detector. These results have been compared with those of other open charm mesons and strange mesons to determine how the (possibly) strangeness equilibrated partonic matter affects the $D_{s}$ meson production. We find that the nuclear modification factor of $D_{S}$ are systematically higher than unity and $D^{0}$ $R_{\rm{AA}}$. The ratio $D_{s}/D^{0}$ is shown as a function of transverse momentum for the 10-40$\%$ most central Au+Au collisions and compared with that in $p+p$ collisions obtained from PYTHIA. It is also compared with that in Pb-Pb collisions at 2.76 TeV by the ALICE experiment. Our measurement indicates a hint of enhancement of $D_{S}$ production in Au+Au collisions with respect to $p+p$ collisions as compared to non-strange $D$ mesons.