The effect of partonic wind on charm quark correlations in high-energy nuclear collisions

Abstract

In high-energy collisions, massive heavy quarks are produced back-to-back initially and they are sensitive to early dynamical conditions. The strong collective partonic wind from the fast expanding quark-gluon plasma created in high-energy nuclear collisions modifies the correlation pattern significantly. As a result, the angular correlation function for D$\bar{\rm D}$ pairs is suppressed at the angle $\Delta\phi=\pi$. While the hot and dense medium in collisions at RHIC ($\sqrt{s_{NN}}=200$ GeV) can only smear the initial back-to-back D$\bar {\rm D}$ correlation, a clear and strong near side D$\bar{\rm D}$ correlation is expected at LHC ($\sqrt{s_{NN}}=5500$ GeV).