Extraction of inclusive photon production at mid-rapidity in p + p and Au + Au collisions at $$\sqrt{s_{\rm{NN}}}$$ s NN = 200 GeV

We present a comprehensive study on the individual sources of an inclusive photon production during high-energy hadronic collisions. The cross section and invariant yields of inclusive photons are obtained as a function of $$p_{\rm {T}}$$ at mid-rapidity ( $$|y|<0.5$$ ) in p + p and Au + Au collisions at $$\sqrt{s_{\rm{NN}}}$$ = 200 GeV, respectively. These results provide crucial inputs to separate measurements of open bottom and charm hadron yield suppression in heavy-ion collisions, which are used to test the mass hierarchy of the parton energy loss in the quark gluon plasma created during these collisions. The procedure developed in this study can also be applied to other measurements of electrons from an open heavy-flavor hadron decay, such as the collective flow in the RHIC beam energy scan program.