Measurements at forward rapidity of elliptic flow of charged hadrons and open-heavy-flavor muons in Au$+$Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{_{NN}}}=200$ GeV

TL;DR

This paper reports the first measurements of elliptic flow at forward rapidity for charged hadrons and open-heavy-flavor muons in Au+Au collisions at 200 GeV, revealing significant flow and mass ordering consistent across rapidities.

Contribution

It provides the first forward-rapidity elliptic flow measurements for heavy-flavor muons, extending understanding of quark-gluon plasma dynamics beyond midrapidity.

Findings

Significant elliptic flow observed for both charged hadrons and heavy-flavor muons.

Clear mass ordering of elliptic flow between light and heavy-flavor particles.

Comparable flow magnitude at forward rapidity and midrapidity, indicating uniform longitudinal evolution.

Abstract

We present the first forward-rapidity measurements of elliptic anisotropy of open-heavy-flavor muons at the BNL Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider. The measurements are based on data samples of Au$+$Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{_{NN}}}=200$ GeV collected by the PHENIX experiment in 2014 and 2016 with integrated luminosity of 14.5~nb$^{-1}$. The measurements are performed in the pseudorapidity range $1.2<|\eta|<2$ and cover transverse momenta $1<p_T<4$~GeV/$c$. The elliptic flow of charged hadrons as a function of transverse momentum is also measured in the same kinematic range. We observe significant elliptic flow for both charged hadrons and heavy-flavor muons. The results show clear mass ordering of elliptic flow of light- and heavy-flavor particles. The magnitude of the measured $v_2$ is comparable to that in the midrapidity region. This indicates that there is no strong longitudinal dependence in the quark-gluon-plasma evolution between midrapidity and the rapidity range of this measurement at $\sqrt{s_{_{NN}}}=200$~GeV.