Measurement of Open Heavy Flavor Production with Single Muons in p+p and d+Au Collisions at RHIC

Heavy flavor production in hadronic collisions is dominated by gluonic processes and so is a sensitive probe of the gluon structure function in the nucleon and its modification in nuclei. A study of heavy flavor production in p+p and d+Au collisions in various kinematic regions presents an opportunity to probe cold nuclear medium effects; parton shadowing, color glass condensate, initial state energy loss, and coherent multiple scattering in final state interactions. The PHENIX muon arms cover both forward and backward directions in the rapidity range of $1.2 < |\eta| < 2.4$. We investigate single muon production from open heavy flavor and light mesons decay in p+p and d+Au collisions at forward and backward rapidity.Comment: Strangeness in Quark Matter, 2006, UCL

Jet Fragmentation in Vacuum and Medium with gamma-hadron Correlations in PHENIX

Jet fragmentation in p+p and Au+Au collisions is studied via back-to-back correlations of direct photons and charged hadrons. The direct photon correlations are obtained by statical subtraction of the background from decay photons. Results on the nuclear modification to the associated charged hadron yields are reviewed. Further studies of jet fragmentation in p+p using isolated direct photons are also presented. A kT-smeared LO pQCD calculation is used to interpret the data. The sensitivity of the data to the underlying fragmentation function is tested and the results are found to be compatible with expectations of a sample dominated by quark jet fragmentation.Comment: Talk presented at Hot Quarks 2010, June 21-26, La Londe Les Maures, France. To be published in Journal of Physics: Conference Series (JPCS

Heavy-Flavor Measurements by the PHENIX Experiment at RHIC

In recent years, PHENIX has studied many important observables related to heavy-flavor physics through their leptonic decay measurements including the invariant yield of electrons from nonphotonic sources, and prompt single muons, both of which are dominated by D and B mesons. Charm and beauty cross-sections were measured and compared through single lepton, and lepton-hadron correlations in p+p collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 200 GeV. Observables for quarkonia production such as invariant yield and polarization were also measured in p+p collisions. In Au+Au collisions, preliminary results for the $R_{AA}$ for single electrons and a 90% CL upper limit for the suppression of $\Upsilon$s were produced. And in $d$+Au collisions, a preliminary $R_{CP}$ study for $J/\psi$ production in different centrality ranges was extracted.Comment: 8 pages, 9 figures, International Conference on Strangeness in Quark Matter Conference 2009 Proceeding

High p_T identified particles in PHENIX: data vs. theory

Two of the most interesting experimental results of heavy-ion reactions at RHIC collider energies are in the hard scattering sector where central Au+Au data show a very different behaviour compared to p+p and peripheral Au+Au collisions. The so-called ``high p_T pi^0 suppression'' and the ``anomalous'' baryon/meson ratio observed by PHENIX in central Au+Au collisions at sqrt(s_{NN}) = 200 GeV are reviewed and compared to various theoretical calculations based on different strongly interacting medium scenarios.Comment: To appear in the proceedings of 19th Winter Workshop on Nuclear Dynamics, Breckenridge, Colorado, US, March 8-15, 200

Scaling properties of azimuthal anisotropy of mesons and baryons at RHIC

Detailed measurements of the azimuthal anisotropy (\v2) for identified charged particles are reported as a function of transverse momentum ($p_T$) and centrality for Au+Au collisions at \sqrtsNN = 200 GeV. The measurements indicate clear evidence for eccentricity and particle flavor scaling over a broad range of centralities and transverse rapidity $y_T$, indicating a hydrodynamical origin of the fine structure of azimuthal anisotropy at RHIC. The observed scaling supports the picture of a suddenly hadronizing (recombining) fluid of quarks. An apparent breaking of flavor scaling at relatively large values of $y_T$ points to an important change in the mechanism for particle emission.Comment: 21St Winter workshop on Nuclear Dynamic

Charge Correlation in Near Side Hadron-Hadron Jets at sqrt(sNN)=200GeV in PHENIX

We analyze the relative azimuthal ($\Delta\phi$) distribution of same-charge and opposite-charge particle pairs. We then remove elliptic flow background using the ZYAM method. Comparisons between near angle $\Delta\phi$ peak widths are presented for various centralities.Comment: Poster Proceedings from 2005 Quark Matter Conference. 4 Pages, 4 Figure

Sex as a Variable: A Bibliography of Women in Libraries 1975-1985

published or submitted for publicatio

PHENIX and the Reaction Plane: Recent Results

During the past several years, experiments at RHIC have established that a dense partonic medium is produced in Au+Au collisions at sqrt(s)=200 GeV. Subsequently, a primary goal of analysis has been to understand and characterize the dynamics underlying this new form of matter. Among the many probes available, the measurements with respect to the reaction plane has proven to be crucial to our understanding of a wide range of topics, from the hydrodynamics of the initial expansion of the collision region to high-pt jet quenching phenomena. Few tools have the ability to shed light on such a wide variety of observables as the reacion plane. In this article, we discuss recent PHENIX measurements with respect to the reaction plane, and the implications for understanding the underlying physics of RHIC collisions.Comment: 9 pages, 13 figures, Submitted for proceedings to the Winter Workshop on Nuclear Dynamics 2010, Ocho Rios, Jamaic