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Heavy hadron production in Au+Au collisions at a center-of-mass energy of sNN=200 GeV

Sunidhi Saxena, Rajiv Gupta, Gauri Devi, and Ajay Kumar*

  • *Contact author: ajay.phy@bhu.ac.in
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Phys. Rev. C 113, 014905 – Published 12 January, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/fj5b-fgv9

Abstract

Using the Monte Carlo HYDJET++ model, we investigate the transverse momentum (pT) spectra of heavy-flavor hadrons, namely D0, D¯0, D+, D−, and Λc, along with the nuclear modification factors of D0 and D± in Au + Au collisions at sNN=200 GeV RHIC energy across various centrality bins. This work extends the earlier study by relaxing the assumption of identical chemical and thermal freezeout and by exploring the effect of a higher chemical freezeout temperature relative to thermal freezeout. The study also explores the centrality and mass dependence of the charm enhancement factor (γc). Furthermore, we investigate medium-induced energy loss, particle-antiparticle asymmetry, and the role of fragmentation in the hadronization process. The HYDJET++ model, with its default parameters, is unable to reproduce heavy hadron yields due to their early thermal freezeout and initial state production of heavy quarks. Therefore, a systematic tuning of model parameters is performed to improve the overall agreement with experimental data. Additionally, to assess the performance of the HYDJET++ model relative to other theoretical approaches, its results are compared with the TAMU, SUBATECH, Torino, and Duke models, for which corresponding simulation data are available. This study shows a decreasing trend in γc from central to peripheral collisions. Moreover, γc increases with increasing charm-hadron mass. The model approximately reproduces the experimental data of pT spectra at low and intermediate pT. However, it overestimates the data at high pT, indicating a need for improvements in modeling the energy loss of heavy quarks. The nuclear modification factors (RAA and RCP) for D0 mesons exhibit significant suppression at high pT. At low pT, RAA results show deviations from the data, reflecting limitations in the model where coalescence becomes important. The antiparticle-to-particle ratios are consistent with experimental data, whereas mixed-particle ratios are underestimated, revealing the model's limitation in estimating the baryon-to-meson enhancement.

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Phys. Rev. C 113, 014905– Published 12 January, 2026
  • Received 6 June 2025
  • Revised 11 November 2025
  • Accepted 3 December 2025
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