Speaker
Donald Hornback
(Univ. Tennessee)
Description
The measurement of heavy flavor production at \sqrt{s_{NN}} = 200 GeV
in both p+p and Au+Au collisions by the PHENIX Experiment at RHIC
provides for complimentary physics exploration in differing collision
environments. The measurement of single leptons resulting from the
semi-leptonic decay of heavy flavor (charm and bottom) mesons in p+p
collisions permits tests of pQCD predictions at \sqrt{s} = 200 GeV,
as well as a measurement of a total charm cross section. The
measurements for p+p collisions also provide a key baseline against
which the analogous single lepton measurements for Au+Au collisions
can be quantified. The dense partonic matter produced in Au+Au
collisions can be investigated through the simultaneous measurement
of the azimuthal anisotropy v2(p_T ) and the nuclear modification
factor R_{AA}(p_T ). In the context of existing predictions, the
observed flow and energy loss of heavy quarks, in addition to that
already seen for light mesons, suggest that the matter formed in Au
+Au collisions at RHIC is a near-perfect fluid. The most recent
PHENIX single electron results from p+p and Au+Au collisions for 0.3
< p_T < 9.0 GeV/c at | y |< 0.35 are shown. Additionally, the latest
PHENIX results for the measurement of heavy flavor production via single
muons at 1.5 < | y | < 1.8 in \sqrt{s} = 200 GeV p+p collisions are presented.
Author
Donald Hornback
(Univ. Tennessee)
