D mesons in non-central heavy-ion collisions: fluctuating vs. averaged initial conditions

Abstract

The suppression of D mesons in non-central heavy-ion collisions is investigated. The anisotropy in collisions at finite impact parameter leads to an ordering of all-angle, in- and out-of-plane nuclear modification factors due to the different in-medium path lengths. Within our MC@sHQ+EPOS model of heavy-quark propagation in the QGP we demonstrate that fluctuating initial conditions lead to an effective reduction of the energy loss of heavy quarks, which is seen in a larger nuclear modification factor at intermediate and high transverse momenta. The elliptic flow at small transverse momenta is reduced.