Measurement of high-$p_T$ Single Electrons from Heavy-Flavor Decays in p+p Collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 200 GeV

• Published in: Physical review letters 2006, Vol.97
• Main Authors: Adare, A., Afanasiev, S., Aidala, C., N. Ajitanand, N., Akiba, Y., Al-Bataineh, H., Alexander, J., Aoki, K., Aphecetche, Laurent, Armendariz, R., H. Aronson, S., Asai, J., Atomssa, E. T., Averbeck, R., C. Awes, T., Azmoun, B., Babintsev, V., Baksay, G., Baksay, L., Baldisseri, A., N. Barish, K., D. Barnes, P., Bassalleck, B., Bathe, S., Batsouli, S., Baublis, V., Bazilevsky, A., Belikov, S., Bennett, R., Berdnikov, Y., A. Bickley, A., G. Boissevain, J., Borel, H., Boyle, K., L. Brooks, M., Buesching, H., Bumazhnov, V., Bunce, G., Butsyk, S., Campbell, S., S. Chang, B., Charvet, J.-L., Chernichenko, S., Chiba, J., Y. Chi, C., Chiu, M., J. Choi, I., Chujo, T., Chung, P., Churyn, A., Cianciolo, V., R. Cleven, C., A. Cole, B., P. Comets, M., Constantin, P., Csanád, M., Csörgő, T., Dahms, T., Das, K., David, G., B. Deaton, M., Dehmelt, K., Delagrange, H., Denisov, A., d'Enterria, D., Deshpande, A., J. Desmond, E., Dietzsch, O., Dion, A., Donadelli, M., Drapier, O., Drees, A., K. Dubey, A., Durum, A., Dzhordzhadze, V., V. Efremenko, Y., Egdemir, J., Ellinghaus, F., S. Emam, W., Enokizono, A., En'Yo, H., Esumi, S., O. Eyser, K., E. Fields, D., Finger, M., Fleuret, F., L. Fokin, S., Fraenkel, Z., Franz, A., Frantz, J., D. Frawley, A., Fujiwara, K., Fukao, Y., Fusayasu, T., Gadrat, S., Garishvili, I., Glenn, A., Gong, H., Gonin, M., Gosset, J.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: High Energy Physics - Experiment; Physics
• ISSN: 0031-9007; 1079-7114
• DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.97.252002

The momentum distribution of electrons from decays of heavy flavor (charm and beauty) for midrapidity |y| < 0.35 in p+p collisions at sqrt(s) = 200 GeV has been measured by the PHENIX experiment at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) over the transverse momentum range 0.3 < p_T < 9 GeV/c. Two independent methods have been used to determine the heavy flavor yields, and the results are in good agreement with each other. A fixed-order-plus-next-to-leading-log pQCD calculation agrees with the data within the theoretical and experimental uncertainties, with the data/theory ratio of 1.72 +/- 0.02^stat +/- 0.19^sys for 0.3 < p_T < 9 GeV/c. The total charm production cross section at this energy has also been deduced to be sigma_(c c^bar) = 567 +/- 57^stat +/- 224^sys micro barns.