Abstract
The PHENIX experiment has measured midrapidity transverse momentum spectra () of single electrons as a function of centrality in collisions at . Contributions from photon conversions and Dalitz decays of light neutral mesons are measured by introducing a thin (1.7% ) converter into the PHENIX acceptance and are statistically removed. The subtracted nonphotonic electron spectra are primarily due to the semileptonic decays of hadrons containing heavy quarks, mainly charm at lower . For all centralities, the charm production cross section is found to scale with the nuclear overlap function, . For minimum-bias collisions the charm cross section per binary collision is .
- Received 28 September 2004
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.94.082301
©2005 American Physical Society