Heavy Quark Energy Loss in the Hybrid Model

TL;DR

This paper extends the Hybrid strong/weak coupling model to include heavy quark energy loss, enabling unified predictions of heavy-flavor observables in quark-gluon plasma from heavy ion collisions.

Contribution

It introduces a novel implementation of heavy-quark energy loss in the Hybrid Model, incorporating both relativistic and non-relativistic regimes, and models hadronization via local color neutralization.

Findings

Model predictions agree with experimental data for B- and D-meson suppression and flow.

Recombination effects significantly impact baryon-to-meson ratios.

The extended model provides a unified framework for heavy-flavor jet and hadron observables.

Abstract

Heavy quarks offer an invaluable hard probe of the droplets of quark gluon plasma (QGP) formed in heavy ion collisions at the LHC and RHIC. Given their large mass, they are predominantly produced in hard scattering processes at the earliest moment of a collision and given their rarity they almost never annihilate with a heavy antiquark subsequently. This means that they experience, and probe, the entire history of the expanding, cooling, droplet of QGP from hydrodynamization through hadronization. Quantitative measurements of heavy quark final state observables therefore give us access to information about the transport properties of QGP as well as about medium modifications of hadronization. To date, the Hybrid strong/weak coupling Model of jet quenching has not included any implementation of the heavy-quark sector, which has made it impossible to confront its predictions with measurements of heavy quark and jet observables together, in a unified fashion. Here, we extend the Hybrid Model to investigate heavy quark observables for the first time. We introduce a strongly-coupled calculation of heavy-quark energy loss with the correct behavior when the heavy quarks are either ultrarelativistic or non-relativistic, Gaussian momentum broadening, and recombination of heavy quarks with medium partons using a local color neutralization model of hadronization. We compare our results for the suppression $R_{\rm AA}$ and azimuthal anisotropies $v_2$ of B- and D-mesons and $\Lambda_c$ baryons, the $R_{\rm AA}$ of B-tagged jets, as well as baryon-to-meson ratios, with available experimental data from ALICE, ATLAS and CMS.