Speaker
Dr
Kikola Daniel
(Purdue University)
Description
Relativistic heavy ion collisions provide a unique opportunity for studying Quark-Gluon Plasma (QGP), a new state of nuclear matter which properties are determined by quark and gluon degrees of freedom. Such a nuclear matter existed in the Early Universe, a few millionths of a second after the Big Bang. Heavy quarks are unique probes of the QGP properties because they are produced very early in the heavy-ion collisions and they are expected to interact differently from light quarks with the QGP. Moreover, their production is sensitive to the dynamics of the medium; such measurements could be used to determine the fundamental properties of the QGP, for instance transport coefficients.
In this talk we present recent STAR results on open heavy flavor production at mid-rapidity in $p+p$ and Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 200 GeV. We report on measurements of open charm mesons (reconstructed directly via hadronic decay channels) and electrons from semileptonic decays of heavy flavor hadrons ($e^{HF}$). Production of $D^0$ and $e^{HF}$ as a function of transverse momentum and collision centrality is presented. We also report on measurements of azimuthal momentum anisotropy of $e^{HF}$ at 39, 62 and 200 GeV. STAR data are compared to theoretical model calculations and physics implications are discussed.
Author
Dr
Kikola Daniel
(Purdue University)
