Production of non-photonic electrons in U+U collisions at √s_NN = 193 GeV at the STAR experiment

Czech Technical University in Prague, Faculty of Nuclear Sciences and Physical Engineering, Břehová 7, 115 19 Prague 1, Czech Republic

^a e-mail: katka.gajdosova19@gmail.com

Published online: 4 November 2016

Abstract

Heavy quarks are suitable probes to study the properties of Quark-Gluon Plasma (QGP), a strongly interacting medium, which can be created in ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC). Non-photonic electrons (NPE) that originate from semileptonic decays of D and B mesons can serve as a good proxy for heavy flavor quarks. Nuclear modification factor R_AA of NPE is measured in heavy-ion collisions, which is sensitive to the effect of QGP on heavy quarks.

Measurements of NPE R_AA in Au+Au collisions at √s_NN = 200 GeV reveal that NPE production is strongly suppressed. In year 2012 STAR collected data from U+U collisions at √s_NN = 193 GeV. In most central collisions higher energy density can be achieved in comparison to collisions of gold nuclei. In this proceedings the preliminary results on NPE in 0-5% most central U+U collisions at a transverse momentum range 1.2 < p_T < 6 GeV/c are presented. The nuclear modification factor in U+U collisions is compared to that in Au+Au collisions and theoretical models.