Light-cone wave function approach to open heavy flavor dynamics in QCD matter

We calculate the lowest-order charm and beauty parton distribution functions in and fragmentation functions into D and B mesons using the operator definitions of factorized perturbative quantum chromodynamics (QCD). In the vacuum, we find the leading corrections that arise from the structure of the final-state hadrons. Quark-antiquark potentials extracted from the lattice are employed to demonstrate the existence of open heavy flavor bound-state solutions in the quark-gluon plasma in the vicinity of the critical temperature. We provide first results for the in-medium modification of the heavy-quark distribution and decay probabilities in a comoving plasma. In an improved perturbative QCD description of heavy-flavor dynamics in the thermal medium, we combine D- and B-meson formation and dissociation with parton-level charm and beauty quark quenching to obtain predictions for the heavy-meson and nonphotonic-electron suppression in Cu+Cu and Pb+Pb collisions at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider and the Large Hadron Collider, respectively.