Energy Loss and Flow of Heavy Quarks in Au+Au Collisions at sqrt(sNN) = 200 GeV
Abstract
The PHENIX experiment at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) has measured electrons from heavy flavor (charm and bottom) decays for 0.3 < pT < 9 GeV/c at midrapidity (|y| < 0.35) in Au+Au collisions at sqrt(sNN) = 200 GeV. The nuclear modification factor RAA relative to p+p collisions shows a strong suppression in central Au+Au collisions, indicating substantial energy loss of heavy quarks in the medium produced at RHIC. A large azimuthal anisotropy, v2, with respect to the reaction plane is observed for 0.5 < pT < 5 GeV/c indicating non-zero heavy flavor elliptic flow. Both RAA and v2 show a pT dependence different from those of neutral pions. A comparison to transport models which simultaneously describe RAA(pT) and v2(pT) suggests that the viscosity to entropy density ratio is close to the conjectured quantum lower bound, i.e., near a perfect fluid.
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