Charm- and bottom-quark production in Au+Au collisions at √sNN = 200 GeV

Abstract

The invariant yield of electrons from open-heavy-flavor decays for 1<8 GeV/c at midrapidity |y|<0.35 in Au+Au collisions at √sNN = 200 GeV has been measured by the PHENIX experiment at the BNL Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider. A displaced-vertex analysis with the PHENIX silicon-vertex detector enables extraction of the fraction of charm and bottom hadron decays and unfolding of the invariant yield of parent charm and bottom hadrons. The nuclear-modification factors RAA for electrons from charm and bottom hadron decays and heavy-flavor hadrons show both a centrality and a quark-mass dependence, indicating suppression in the quark-gluon plasma produced in these collisions that is medium sized and quark-mass dependent.