Elliptic flow of electrons from heavy-flavor hadron decays in Au + Au collisions at √sNN =200, 62.4, and 39 GeV

Abstract

We present measurements of elliptic flow (v2) of electrons from the decays of heavy-flavor hadrons (eHF) by the STAR experiment. For Au+Au collisions at sNN=200 GeV we report v2, for transverse momentum (pT) between 0.2 and 7 GeV/c, using three methods: the event plane method (v2{EP}), two-particle correlations (v2{2}), and four-particle correlations (v2{4}). For Au+Au collisions at sNN=62.4 and 39 GeV we report v2{2} for pT<2GeV/c. v2{2} and v2{4} are nonzero at low and intermediate pT at 200 GeV, and v2{2} is consistent with zero at low pT at other energies. The v2{2} at the two lower beam energies is systematically lower than at sNN=200 GeV for pT<1GeV/c. This difference may suggest that charm quarks interact less strongly with the surrounding nuclear matter at those two lower energies compared to sNN=200 GeV.