Eur. Phys. J. C (2007) 49: 379-382
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-006-0108-3

Regular Article – Experimental Physics

Dependence of the non-photonic electron spectrum on the charmed baryon-to-meson ratio

Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, NY, 11973, USA

^* e-mail: psoren@bnl.gov

Received: 3 August 2006
Published online: 26 October 2006

Abstract

In this talk I argue that a substantial fraction of the non-photonic electron suppression in Au+Au collisions could arise as a result of an enhanced Λ_c/D ratio rather than purely from jet-quenching. At intermediate transverse momentum (2<p_T<6 GeV/c), the baryon-to-meson ratio in Au+Au collisions is enhanced compared to p+p collisions. Since charm-baryon decays produce electrons less frequently than charm-meson decays, the non-photonic electron spectrum is sensitive to the Λ_c/D ratio. I show the dependence of the non-photonic electron spectrum on the baryon-to-meson ratio for charm hadrons. As an example, I assume that the Λ_c/D ratio is the same as the Λ/K⁰ _S ratio. I show that even if the total charm quark yield in Au+Au collisions scales with the number of binary nucleon-nucleon collisions (N_bin), the electron spectrum at 2<p_T<5 GeV/c will be suppressed relative to N_bin scaled p+p collisions by as much as 20%.