Energy Loss and Flow of Heavy Quarks inAu+AuCollisions atsNN=200 GeV

The PHENIX experiment at the BNL Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) has measured electrons with $0.3<{p}_{T}<9\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{GeV}/c$ at midrapidity ($|y|<0.35$) from heavy-flavor (charm and bottom) decays in $\mathrm{Au}+\mathrm{Au}$ collisions at $\sqrt{{s}_{\mathrm{NN}}}=200\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{GeV}$. The nuclear modification factor ${R}_{\mathrm{AA}}$ relative to $p+p$ collisions shows a strong suppression in central $\mathrm{Au}+\mathrm{Au}$ collisions, indicating substantial energy loss of heavy quarks in the medium produced at RHIC energies. A large azimuthal anisotropy ${v}_{2}$ with respect to the reaction plane is observed for $0.5<{p}_{T}<5\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{GeV}/c$ indicating substantial heavy-flavor elliptic flow. Both ${R}_{\mathrm{AA}}$ and ${v}_{2}$ show a ${p}_{T}$ dependence different from those of neutral pions. A comparison to transport models which simultaneously describe ${R}_{\mathrm{AA}}({p}_{T})$ and ${v}_{2}({p}_{T})$ suggests that the viscosity to entropy density ratio is close to the conjectured quantum lower bound, i.e., near a perfect fluid.

Energy Loss and Flow of Heavy Quarks inAu+AuCollisions atsNN=200 GeV | Litlas