Heavy flavors in nucleus-nucleus collisions at RHIC and LHC

Abstract

A multi-step setup for heavy-flavor studies in high-energy nucleus-nucleus (AA) collisions — addressing within a comprehensive framework the initial QQ¯$Q\overline Q $ production, the propagation in the hot medium until decoupling and the final hadronization and decays — is presented. The propagation of the heavy quarks in the medium is described in a framework provided by the relativistic Langevin equation and the corresponding numerical results are compared to experimental data from RHIC and the LHC. In particular, outcomes for the nuclear modification factor RAA and for the elliptic flow υ2 of D/B mesons, heavy-flavor electrons and non-prompt J/ψ’s are displayed.