Azimuthal correlations of electrons from heavy flavor decay with hadrons in p+p and Au+Au collisions at sNN 200 GeV
Measurements of electrons from the decay of open heavy flavor mesons have shown that the yields are suppressed in Au+Au collisions compared to expectations from binary scaled p+p collisions. These measurements indicate that charm and bottom quarks interact with the hot dense matter produced in heavy ion collisions much more than expected. Here we extend these studies to two particle correlations where one particle is an electron from the decay of a heavy flavor meson and the other is a charged hadron from either the decay of the heavy meson or from jet fragmentation. These measurements provide more detailed information about the interactions between heavy quarks and the matter, such as whether the modification of the away side jet shape seen in hadron hadron correlations is present when the trigger particle is from heavy meson decay and whether the overall level of away side jet suppression is consistent. We statistically subtract correlations of electrons arising from background sources from the inclusive electron hadron correlations and obtain two particle azimuthal correlations at root s(NN) 200 GeV between electrons from heavy flavor decay with charged hadrons in p+p and also first results in Au+Au collisions. We find the away side jet shape and yield to be modified in Au+Au collisions compared to p+p collisions.