Measurement of single electron event anisotropy in Au plus Au collisions at √sNN=200 GeV -: art. no. 024901

The transverse momentum dependence of the azimuthal anisotropy parameter v(2), the second harmonic of the azimuthal distribution, for electrons at midrapidity (vertical bar eta vertical bar < 0.35) has been measured with the PHENIX detector in Au+Au collisions at root s(NN) = 200 GeV. The measurement was made with respect to the reaction plane defined at high rapidities (vertical bar eta vertical bar = 3.1-3.9). From the result we have measured the v(2) of electrons from heavy flavor decay after subtraction of the v(2) of electrons from other sources such as photon conversions and Dalitz decay from light neutral mesons. We observe a nonzero single electron v(2) with a 90% confidence level in the intermediate-p(T) region. The precision of the present data set does not permit us to conclude definitively that heavy quarks exhibit thermalization with the transverse flow of the bulk matter.