"Collisional and radiative energy loss mechanisms at RHIC"

Dr. Magdalena Djordjevic

Ohio State University

Abstract

Heavy quark production and attenuation will provide unique tomographic probes of QCD matter created in Ultrarelativistic Heavy Ion Collisions. In this talk I will present both collisional and radiative energy loss mechanisms that we developed. I will also discuss the heavy flavor suppression results obtained from these energy loss mechanisms. Unexpectedly, recent data on nonphotonic electron quenching in central Au+Au collisions at 200 AGeV at RHIC show significant discrepancies with theoretical predictions that are based only on the radiative energy loss mechanisms. However, our recent study indicates that the inclusion of elastic energy loss in the jet quenching may help to solve this puzzle.