Energy loss effects on charm and bottom production in high-energy heavy-ion collisions

Abstract

We study the effect of energy loss on charm and bottom quarks in high-energy heavy-ion collisions including longitudinal expansion and partial thermalization. We find that high $p_\perp$ heavy quarks are greatly suppressed, and consequently, high-mass dileptons from heavy quark decays are also suppressed. We consider in detail the detector geometry and single lepton energy cuts of the PHENIX detector at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC). Because of the longitudinal expansion, the suppressions of $ee, eμ$ and $μμ$ pairs resulting from the heavy quark energy loss are very different due to the different rapidity coverages and energy cuts. The assumed energy loss rate, on the order of 1 GeV/fm, results in a large suppression on dielectrons, and dielectrons from heavy quark decays become comparable or even lower than the Drell-Yan yield. It is thus possible to probe the energy loss rate of the medium using dileptons from heavy quark decays.