Abstract: We study the single electron spectra from D- and B-meson semileptonic decays in Au + Au collisions at root s(NN) = 200, 62.4, and 19.2 GeV by employing the parton-hadron-string dynamics (PHSD) transport approach that has been shown to reasonably describe the charm dynamics at Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider and Large Hadron Collider energies on a microscopic level. In this approach the initial charm and bottom quarks are produced by using the PYTHIA event generator which is tuned to reproduce the fixed-order next-to-leading logarithm calculations for charm and bottom production. The produced charm and bottom quarks interact with off-shell (massive) partons in the quark-gluon plasma with scattering cross sections which are calculated in the dynamical quasiparticle model that is matched to reproduce the equation of state of the partonic system above the deconfinement temperature T-c. At energy densities close to the critical energy density (approximate to 0.5 GeV/fm(3)) the charm and bottom quarks are hadronized intoD and B mesons through either coalescence or fragmentation. After hadronization the D and B mesons interact with the light hadrons by employing the scattering cross sections from an effective Lagrangian. The final D and B mesons then produce single electrons through semileptonic decay. We find that the PHSD approach well describes the nuclear modification factor R-AA and elliptic flow upsilon(2) of single electrons in d + Au and Au + Au collisions at root s(NN) = 200 GeV and the elliptic flow in Au + Au reactions at root s(NN) = 62.4 GeV from the PHENIX Collaboration, however, the large RAA at root s(NN) = 62.4 GeV is not described at all. Furthermore, we make predictions for the RAA of D mesons and of single electrons at the lower energy of root s(NN) = 19.2 GeV. Additionally, the medium modification of the azimuthal angle phi between a heavy quark and a heavy antiquark is studied. We find that the transverse flow enhances the azimuthal angular distributions close to phi = 0 because the heavy flavors strongly interact with nuclear medium in relativistic heavy-ion collisions and almost flow with the bulk matter.

Abstract: We study the behavior of the chi(c1) (3872), also known as X(3872), in dense nuclear matter. We begin from a picture in vacuum of the X(3872) as a purely molecular (D (D) over bar*-c.c.) state, generated as a bound state from a heavy-quark symmetry leading-order interaction between the charmed mesons, and analyze the D (D) over bar* scattering T matrix (T-D (D) over bar*) inside of the medium. Next, we consider also mixed-molecular scenarios and, in all cases, we determine the corresponding X(3872) spectral function and the D (D) over bar* amplitude, with the mesons embedded in the dense environment. We find important nuclear corrections for T-D (D) over bar* and the pole position of the resonance, and discuss the dependence of these results on the D (D) over bar* molecular component in the X(3872) wave function. These predictions could be tested in the finite-density regime that can be accessed in the future CBM and PANDA experiments at the Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research (FAIR).

Abstract: The energies and widths of several D-0 meson bound states for different nuclei are obtained using a D-meson selfenergy in the nuclear medium, which is evaluated in a selfconsistent manner using techniques of unitarized coupled-channel theory. The kernel of the meson-baryon interaction is based on a model that treats heavy pseudoscalar and heavy vector mesons on equal footing, as required by heavy quark symmetry. We find D-0 bound states in all studied nuclei, from C-12 up to Pb-208. The inclusion of vector mesons is the keystone for obtaining an attractive D-nucleus interaction that leads to the existence of D-0-nucleus bound states, as compared to previous studies based on SU(4) flavor symmetry. In some cases, the half widths are smaller than the separation of the levels, what makes possible their experimental observation by means of a nuclear reaction. This can be of particular interest for the future PANDA@FAIR physics program. We also find a D+ bound state in C-12, but it is too broad and will have a significant overlap with the energies of the continuum.

Abstract: We analyze the modifications that a dense nuclear medium induces in the D-s0*(2317)(+/-) and D-s1(2460)(+/-). In the vacuum, we consider them as isoscalar D-(*K-) and (D) over bar (()*())(K) over bar S-wave bound states, which are dynamically generated from effective interactions that lead to different Weinberg compositeness scenarios. Matter effects are incorporated through the two-meson loop functions, taking into account the self energies that the D-(*()), (D) over bar (()*()), K, and (K) over bar develop when embedded in a nuclear medium. Although particle-antiparticle [D-s0,s1(()*())(2317,2460)(+) versus D-s0,s1(()*())(2317,2460)(-)] lineshapes are the same in vacuum, we find extremely different density patterns in matter. This charge-conjugation asymmetry mainly stems from the very different kaon and antikaon interaction with the nucleons of the dense medium. We show that the in-medium lineshapes found for these resonances strongly depend on their D-(*()), K/(D) over bar (()*()), K molecular content, and discuss how this novel feature can be used to better determine/constrain the inner structure of these exotic states.

Abstract: We study charmed and strange odd-parity baryon resonances that are generated dynamically by a unitary baryon-meson coupled-channels model which incorporates heavy-quark spin symmetry. This is accomplished by extending the SU(3) Weinberg-Tomozawa chiral Lagrangian to SU(8) spin-flavor symmetry plus a suitable symmetry breaking. The model generates resonances with negative parity from the s-wave interaction of pseudoscalar and vector mesons with 1/2(+) and 3/2(+) baryons in all the isospin, spin, and strange sectors with one, two, and three charm units. Some of our results can be identified with experimental data from several facilities, such as the CLEO, Belle, or BaBar Collaborations, as well as with other theoretical models, whereas others do not have a straightforward identification and require the compilation of more data and also a refinement of the model. (c) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.