Observation of D[superscript 0] Meson Nuclear Modifications in Au + Au Collisions at √s[subscript NN] = 200 GeV

• Main Authors: Stevens, Justin (Contributor), van Nieuwenhuizen, Gerrit Jan (Contributor)
• Other Authors: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Laboratory for Nuclear Science (Contributor)
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: American Physical Society, 2014-10-10T18:24:24Z.
• Subjects: Article
• Online Access: Get fulltext

 We report the first measurement of charmed-hadron (D[superscript 0]) production via the hadronic decay channel (D[superscript 0] → K[superscript −] + π[superscript +]) in Au + Au collisions at √s[subscript NN] =200  GeV with the STAR experiment. The charm production cross section per nucleon-nucleon collision at midrapidity scales with the number of binary collisions, N[subscript bin], from p + p to central Au + Au collisions. The D[superscript 0] meson yields in central Au + Au collisions are strongly suppressed compared to those in p + p scaled by N[subscript bin], for transverse momenta p[subscript T] > 3  GeV/c, demonstrating significant energy loss of charm quarks in the hot and dense medium. An enhancement at intermediate p[subscript T] is also observed. Model calculations including strong charm-medium interactions and coalescence hadronization describe our measurements.