Single Electrons from Heavy Flavor Decays in p+p Collisions at sqrt(s) = 200 GeV

TL;DR

This paper measures the production of electrons from heavy flavor decays in proton-proton collisions at 200 GeV, compares results with QCD predictions, and determines the charm quark pair production cross section.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed measurement of heavy flavor electron spectra at this energy and compares them with theoretical calculations, extracting the charm production cross section.

Findings

Electron spectrum from heavy flavor decays measured over 0.4 to 5.0 GeV/c

Heavy flavor electron spectrum agrees with pQCD calculations within uncertainties

Total charm pair production cross section determined as 0.92 ± 0.15 (stat) ± 0.54 (sys) mb

Abstract

The invariant differential cross section for inclusive electron production in $p + p$ collisions at $\sqrt{s} = 200$~GeV has been measured by the PHENIX experiment at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider over the transverse momentum range $0.4 \le p_T \le 5.0$~GeV/$c$ in the central rapidity region ($|\eta| \le 0.35$). The contribution to the inclusive electron spectrum from semileptonic decays of hadrons carrying heavy flavor, {\it i.e.} charm quarks or, at high $p_T$, bottom quarks, is determined via three independent methods. The resulting electron spectrum from heavy flavor decays is compared to recent leading and next-to-leading order perturbative QCD calculations. The total cross section of charm quark-antiquark pair production is determined to be $\sigma_{c\bar{c}} = 0.92 \pm 0.15 {\rm (stat.)} \pm 0.54 {\rm (sys.)}$~mb.