A light-cone wavefunction approach to open heavy flavor dynamics in QCD matter

Abstract

We calculate the lowest order charm and beauty parton distribution functions in and fragmentation functions into D and B mesons using the operator definitions of factorized perturbative QCD. In the vacuum, we find the leading corrections that arise from the structure of the final-state hadrons. Quark-antiquark potentials extracted from the lattice are employed to demonstrate the existence of open heavy flavor bound-state solutions in the QGP in the vicinity of the critical temperature. We provide first results for the in-medium modification of the heavy quark distribution and decay probabilities in a co-moving plasma. In an improved perturbative QCD description of heavy flavor dynamics in the thermal medium, we combine D and B meson formation and dissociation with parton-level charm and beauty quark quenching to obtain predictions for the heavy meson and non-photonic electron suppression in Cu+Cu and Pb+Pb collisions at RHIC and the LHC, respectively.

As published in Physical Review. Significantly extended: 19 pages, 9 .eps figures, 3 tables. Technical details and appendix added