Heavy-quark production in ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions within a partonic transport model

The production and space-time evolution of charm and bottom quarks in nucleus-nucleus collisions at the BNL Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) and the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC) are investigated with the partonic transport model BAMPS (Boltzmann approach of multiparton scatterings). Heavy quarks, produced in primary hard parton scatterings during nucleon-nucleon collisions, are sampled using the Monte Carlo event generator pythia or the leading-order minijet model in conjunction with the Glauber model, revealing a strong sensitivity on the parton distribution functions, scales, and heavy-quark mass. In a comprehensive study exploring different charm masses, K factors, and possible initial gluon conditions, secondary production and the evolution of heavy quarks are examined within a fully dynamic BAMPS simulation for central heavy-ion collisions at RHIC and LHC. Although charm production in the quark-gluon plasma can be neglected at RHIC, it is significant at LHC but very sensitive to the initial conditions and the charm mass. Bottom production in the quark-gluon plasma, however, is negligible both at RHIC and LHC.