1 research outputs found
Heavy-Quark Diffusion, Flow and Recombination at RHIC
We discuss recent developments in assessing heavy-quark interaction in the
Quark-Gluon Plasma (QGP). While induced gluon radiation is expected to be the
main energy-loss mechanism for fast-moving quarks, we focus on elastic
scattering which prevails toward lower energies, evaluating both perturbative
(gluon-exchange) and nonperturbative (resonance formation) interactions in the
QGP. The latter are treated within an effective model for D- and B-meson
resonances above T_c as motivated by current QCD lattice calculations.
Pertinent diffusion and drag constants, following from a Fokker-Planck
equation, are implemented into an expanding fireball model for Au-Au collisions
at RHIC using relativistic Langevin simulations. Heavy quarks are hadronized in
a combined fragmentation and coalescence framework, and resulting
electron-decay spectra are compared to recent RHIC data. A reasonable
description of both nuclear suppression factors and elliptic flow up to momenta
of ~5 GeV supports the notion of a strongly interacting QGP created at RHIC.
Consequences and further tests of the proposed resonance interactions are
discussed.Comment: 8 pages, 14 figures, contribution to the proceedings for the
"International Conference on Strangeness in Quark Matter 2006