Heavy Flavor Production at PHENIX at RHIC.pdf

a r X i v : n u c l - e x / 0 6 1 1 0 2 9 v 1 1 6 N o v 2 0 0 6 A Class File for AIP The parameter section Frank Mittelbach February 8, 2008 Contents 1 a r X i v : n u c l - e x / 0 6 1 1 0 2 9 v 1 1 6 N o v 2 0 0 6 Heavy Flavor Production at PHENIX at RHIC Xiaorong Wang for PHENIX collaboration New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, NM 88003, USA Hua-zhong Normal University, Wuhan 430079, P.R. China Abstract. A study of heavy flavor production in different collision systems in various kinematic regions presents an opportunity to probe cold nuclear medium and hot dense matter effects. Results from the PHENIX experiment on J/ψ and open charm production in Au+Au and Cu+Cu collisions at √ sNN =200 GeV are presented. The data show strong J/ψ suppression in central AA collisions, similar to NA50 results, and strong suppression in high pT open charm production. The J/ψ production in Au+Au and d+Au collisions is compared to understand the cold nuclear medium effects. The data show significant cold nuclear effects in charm production in d+Au collisions at forward and backward rapidity ranges. Keywords: Heavy Flavor, Nuclear Effect, High Density matter PACS: 25.75 -q INTRODUCTION Heavy flavor is a sensitive probe of the gluon structure function in the nucleon and its modification in nuclear matter. Charm quarks are believed to be mostly created from initial gluon fusion in hadronic collisions. Since they are massive, heavy flavor hadrons are proposed to be ideal probes to study the early stage dynamics in heavy-ion collisions. J/ψ and open charm production are two of the most important hard probes of the hot dense matter created in Au+Au collisions. It is also necessary to understand their produc- tion in the cold nuclear medium in d+Au collisions as a reference in their production in Au+Au collisions. Since the initial formation of both open and closed charm is sensitive to initial gluon densities, then gluon structure functions, shadowing or anti-shadowing and