Elliptic flow of electrons from heavy-flavor hadron decays in Au + Au collisions at s N N = 200 , 62.4, and 39 GeV
Here, we present measurements of elliptic flow (v 2 ) of electrons from the decays of heavy-flavor hadrons (e HF ) by the STAR experiment. For Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s}$$_ {NN}$=200 GeV we report v 2 , for transverse momentum (p T ) between 0.2 and 7 GeV/c, using three methods: the event plane method (v 2 {EP}), two-particle correlations (v 2 {2}), and four-particle correlations (v 2 {4}). For Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s}$$_ {NN}$=62.4 and 39 GeV we report v 2 {2} for p T <2GeV/c. v 2 {2} and v 2 {4} are nonzero at low and intermediate p T at 200 GeV, and v 2 {2} is consistent with zero at low p T at other energies. The v 2 {2} at the two lower beam energies is systematically lower than at $\sqrt{s}$$_ {NN}$=200 GeV for p T <1GeV/c. This difference may suggest that charm quarks interact less strongly with the surrounding nuclear matter at those two lower energies compared to $\sqrt{s}$$_ {NN}$=200 GeV.