Thermalization of charm quarks in infinite and finite quark-gluon plasma matter, S. Cao, Duke University, USA − We study the thermalization process of charm quarks in hot and dense matter.  The diffusion of heavy quarks is calculated via a Langevin equation, both for a static medium as well as for a quark-gluon plasma (QGP) medium generated by a (3+1)-dimensional hydrodynamic model.  We define two criteria for the thermalization of the heavy quarks and observe thermalization times that are longer than the lifetime of the QGP phase for reasonable values of the diffusion constant.

 

We then extend our work to study the sensitivity of experimental observables, such as v2 and RAA of D mesons and non-photonic electrons, to different parameters of the current Langevin algorithm and hydrodynamic medium, such as the choice of the initial state of the medium.  Finally we present an extension of our Langevin formulation to include energy loss due to radiation.