Speaker
Description
We discuss the diffusion and the energy loss of heavy quarks (HQs), charm and beauty, in relativistic heavy ion collisions. HQs are produced by hard QCD scatterings in the very early stage of the collision. Consequently, they probe the entire evolution of the medium produced by the collision, from the pre-equilibrium stage up to the freezout passing by the evolution in the quark-gluon plasma (QGP). We review recent advances in the modeling of this evolution, summarizing the work done by the units of Turin and Catania on the subject. Emphasis will be put on the most relevant findings, that include advances on the hadronization mechanism of HQs, estimate of the transport coefficients, interaction with strong gluon fields in the early stage and diffusion and energy loss in a bath with memory.
