Speaker
Dr.
Robert Vertesi
Description
In ultrarelativistic heavy ion collisions, a phase transition
occurs from hadronic matter into a state of deconfined
quarks and gluons. Properties of this new state of
matter, dubbed as the strongly interacting Quark-Gluon
Plasma (sQGP), have been a subject of extensive
measurements at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider
(RHIC) in the past decade. Due to their large masses,
charm and bottom quarks are dominantly produced in
hard QCD processes early in the collisions and thus
provide a unique means of exploring the properties of
the sQGP. Open heavy flavor production is sensitive to
interactions with the medium, while the production of
different quarkonium states probe the thermal properties
of the sQGP. Other effects, such as initial state cold
nuclear matter effects, production via recombination of
quark-antiquark pairs in the sQGP, and dissociation in
hadronic phase, could also alter the expected picture.
Measurements of the open heavy flavor and quarkonium
production in different collision systems and at different
energies are therefore crucial for disentangling relative
contributions from these effects.
In this talk we report recent STAR heavy flavor results
at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$=200 GeV in p+p and d+Au collisions,
$\sqrt{s_{NN}}$=200 GeV, 62.4 and 39 GeV in Au+Au
collisions, as well as $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$=193 GeV in U+U
collisions. The latter provides the highest energy density
at RHIC. Measurements of open heavy flavor hadrons
through both hadronic and semi-leptonic channels, and
those of $J/\psi$ and $\upsilon$ states will be presented
and compared to theoretical calculations. The future
prospect of the heavy flavor program at STAR in light
of recent detector upgrades will also be discussed.
Primary author
Collaboration STAR
(STAR Collaboration)
