Speaker
Description
Measurements of elliptic flow ($v_2$) of light and heavy flavor particles can provide key insight into the transport properties and collective behavior of QGP. The PHENIX experiment has a unique forward rapidity coverage at RHIC ($1.2\leq|\eta|\leq2.2$), and large muon datasets collected in 2014 and 2016 with Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}} = 200$ GeV, allowing for statistically significant heavy flavor $v_2$ measurements. Mid-rapidity data from RHIC indicate significant flow of open heavy flavor, while $v_2$ of $J/\psi$ is consistent with zero within the large statistical uncertainty. At LHC energies, both open heavy flavor particles and $J/\psi$ have non-zero $v_2$ measured in Pb+Pb and in p+Pb collisions. The influence of the initial and final state effects, charm thermalization and coalescence are under investigation both at RHIC and LHC. Most of the available RHIC measurements are at mid-rapidity. However, at forward rapidity the measurements sample different initial conditions, and the QGP has different temperature and pressure gradients, presenting an opportunity to disentagle competing effects. We present final results of $v_2$ of charged hadrons, muons from heavy flavor decays, and $J/\psi$, measured using the PHENIX muon arms from the combined high-statistics 2014 and 2016 Au+Au datasets. The results are compared to RHIC measurements at mid-rapidity and to measurements form LHC to provide a comprehensive picture of heavy flavor dynamics in QGP.
| Category | Experiment |
|---|---|
| Collaboration | PHENIX |
