Perturbative and non-perturbative interactions between heavy quarks and quark-gluon plasma within a unified approach

Abstract

While perturbative QCD is sufficient for understanding the color, mass and energy dependences of parton energy loss and jet quenching at large transverse momentum in heavy-ion collisions, a simultaneous description of heavy flavor nuclear modification factor RAA and elliptic flow coefficient v2 at low and intermediate pT still remains a challenge due to the effects from non-perturbative interactions. In this work, we extend the linear Boltzmann transport model by implementing a generalized Cornell-type potential that incorporates both short-range Yukawa interaction and longrange color confining interaction between heavy quarks and the QGP medium. Combining our new approach for heavy-quark-QGP interaction with a (3+1)-dimensional hydrodynamic model CLVisc for the QGP evolution and a hybrid fragmentation-coalescence model for heavy quark hadronization, we obtain a satisfactory description of heavy meson RAA and v2 from low to intermediate to high pT observed at both RHIC and the LHC. By model-data-comparison, we extract for the first time the in-medium heavy quark potential from open heavy flavor measurements; the result is in agreement with the lattice QCD calculation. Our study indicates that while jet quenching at high pT is dominated by perturbative QCD interactions, non-perturbative interactions are indispensible for understanding heavy flavor quenching and flow at low and intermediate pT.

Recent Developments in Heavy-Ion Theory: Soft and Hard Probes

“…As we move to lower T , non-perturbative interactions become important. We have further developed the transport model for heavy quarks by allowing them to scatter with a general potential [41], which contains both a Yukawa term and a string term, representing perturbative and non-perturbative interactions respectively. As shown in Fig.…”

Interactions between heavy quarks and tilted QGP fireballs in 200 A GeV Au+Au collisions*

“…At intermediate , a combination of fragmentation and coalescence mechanisms is essential in understanding the hadronization process of heavy quarks and thus describing the heavy flavor hadron chemistry observed at the RHIC and LHC [13][14][15][16]. At low , modeling the non-perturbative scatterings between heavy quarks and the medium becomes inevitable to understand their strong interactions, as revealed by the large elliptic flow coefficients of D mesons [17][18][19][20][21]. In addition to and , novel observables have also been proposed to place more stringent constraints on the heavy quark dynamics inside QGP, such as the momentum imbalance and angular correlation between heavy meson pairs [22,23], correlation of the higher-order harmonic flow coefficients between heavy and light flavor hadrons [24], and inner structures of heavy-flavor tagged jets [25,26].…”