Eur. Phys. J. C (2005) 43: 201-208
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s2005-02307-9

Experimental Physics

Heavy flavor production in PHENIX

Received: 30 March 2005
Revised: 11 April 2005
Published online: 6 July 2005

Abstract

The PHENIX experiment at RHIC measured single electron spectra in p + p, d + Au and Au + Au collisions at GeV, and in Au + Au collisions at GeV. In these spectra, electrons from semi-leptonic decays of charmed particles are the dominant contribution after subtraction of all 'photonic' sources (photon conversions, Dalitz decays, decays of light vector mesons). The p + p open charm production cross-section is found to be in good agreement with pQCD NLO calculations. The shape of the distributions obtained for p + p interactions is compared with those observed for nucleus-nucleus collisions. From p + p to d + Au and Au + Au interactions, open charm production is found to scale with the number of binary collisions . Au + Au data at GeV is compatible with the ISR p + p results scaled by . The elliptic flow parameter v ₂ of heavy flavor electrons has also been measured, and is found to be non-zero in the intermediate p _T range.