Charm-baryon production in proton-proton collisions

Min He (Department of Applied Physics, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing, China) ; Ralf Rapp (Cyclotron Institute and Department of Physics & Astronomy, Texas A&M University, College Station, USA)

Recent measurements of charm-hadron production in proton-proton collisions at the LHC have found a surprisingly large baryon to meson ratio. We propose that this observation can be explained by the statistical hadronization model (SHM), by employing a largely augmented set of charm-baryon states beyond the current listings of the particle data group. We estimate the additional states using guidance from the relativistic quark model and from lattice QCD. Using charm- and strange-quark fugacity factors to account for the well-known suppression of heavy flavor in elementary collisions, we compute the yields and spectra of D, Ds and Λc hadrons in proton-proton collisions at s=5 TeV. Our main finding is that the enhanced feeddown from excited charm baryons can account for the Λc/D0 ratio measured by ALICE at midrapidity, with some caveat for the forward-rapidity LHCb data. Furthermore, assuming independent fragmentation of charm quarks but with the hadronic ratios fixed by the SHM, the measured transverse-momentum (pT) spectra of D-mesons and Λc can also be described; in particular, the low-pT enhancement in the observed Λc/D0 ratio is attributed to the enhanced feeddown from “missing” charm-baryon states. We comment on the implications of these findings for measurements of Ds and Λc in heavy-ion collisions.

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  "abstracts": [
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      "source": "Elsevier", 
      "value": "Recent measurements of charm-hadron production in proton-proton collisions at the LHC have found a surprisingly large baryon to meson ratio. We propose that this observation can be explained by the statistical hadronization model (SHM), by employing a largely augmented set of charm-baryon states beyond the current listings of the particle data group. We estimate the additional states using guidance from the relativistic quark model and from lattice QCD. Using charm- and strange-quark fugacity factors to account for the well-known suppression of heavy flavor in elementary collisions, we compute the yields and spectra of D, <math><msub><mrow><mi>D</mi></mrow><mrow><mi>s</mi></mrow></msub></math> and <math><msub><mrow><mi>\u039b</mi></mrow><mrow><mi>c</mi></mrow></msub></math> hadrons in proton-proton collisions at <math><msqrt><mrow><mi>s</mi></mrow></msqrt><mo>=</mo><mn>5</mn></math> TeV. Our main finding is that the enhanced feeddown from excited charm baryons can account for the <math><msub><mrow><mi>\u039b</mi></mrow><mrow><mi>c</mi></mrow></msub><mo>/</mo><msup><mrow><mi>D</mi></mrow><mrow><mn>0</mn></mrow></msup></math> ratio measured by ALICE at midrapidity, with some caveat for the forward-rapidity LHCb data. Furthermore, assuming independent fragmentation of charm quarks but with the hadronic ratios fixed by the SHM, the measured transverse-momentum (<math><msub><mrow><mi>p</mi></mrow><mrow><mi>T</mi></mrow></msub></math>) spectra of D-mesons and <math><msub><mrow><mi>\u039b</mi></mrow><mrow><mi>c</mi></mrow></msub></math> can also be described; in particular, the low-<math><msub><mrow><mi>p</mi></mrow><mrow><mi>T</mi></mrow></msub></math> enhancement in the observed <math><msub><mrow><mi>\u039b</mi></mrow><mrow><mi>c</mi></mrow></msub></math>/<math><msup><mrow><mi>D</mi></mrow><mrow><mn>0</mn></mrow></msup></math> ratio is attributed to the enhanced feeddown from \u201cmissing\u201d charm-baryon states. We comment on the implications of these findings for measurements of <math><msub><mrow><mi>D</mi></mrow><mrow><mi>s</mi></mrow></msub></math> and <math><msub><mrow><mi>\u039b</mi></mrow><mrow><mi>c</mi></mrow></msub></math> in heavy-ion collisions."
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Published on:
31 July 2019
Publisher:
Elsevier
Published in:
Physics Letters B , Volume 795 C (2019)

Pages 117-121
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physletb.2019.06.004
Copyrights:
The Authors
Licence:
CC-BY-3.0

Fulltext files: