Directed flow of open charm in Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 200 GeV using a quark coalescence model

Abstract

The directed flow ($v_1$) of open charm meson ($D^0$) is studied in Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 200~GeV using A Multi-Phase Transport (AMPT) model framework with partonic interactions (string melting version). Within this framework, it is found that although the initial spatial eccentricity (${ϵ}_1$) of charm quark is smaller than light quarks, the charm quark $v_1$ magnitude is found to be approximately 7 times larger than that of the light u quark at large rapidity. This indicates that the charm quarks can retain more information from initial condition than the light quarks. We have studied the directed flow of $D^0$ as a function of rapidity and transverse momentum using quark coalescence as the mechanism for hadron production. Like charm quark, the $D^0$ $v_1$ magnitude is found to be about 7 times larger than that of the light ($\pi$) hadrons at large rapidity.

Comments: 6 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. C