Measurement of single electrons and implications for charm production in Au+Au collisions at sqrt(s_NN)= 130 GeV
K. Adcox, PHENIX Collaboration
TL;DR
Transverse momentum spectra of electrons from Au+Au collisions at square root[s(NN)] = 130 GeV have been measured by the PHENIX experiment at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider and are consistent with that expected from semileptonic decays of charm.
Abstract
Transverse momentum spectra of electrons from Au+Au collisions at sqrt(s_NN) = 130 GeV have been measured by the PHENIX experiment at RHIC. The spectra show an excess above the background from photon conversions and light hadron decays. The electron signal is consistent with that expected from semi-leptonic decays of charm. The yield of the electron signal dN_e/dy for p_T > 0.8 GeV/c is 0.025 +/- 0.004 (stat.) +/- 0.010 (sys.) in central collisions, and the corresponding charm cross section is 380 +/- 60 (stat.) +/- 200 (sys.) micro barns per binary nucleon-nucleon collision.