English

Charm production and fragmentation fractions at midrapidity in pp collisions at $\sqrt{s} = 13$ TeV

High Energy Physics - Experiment 2024-01-09 v3 Nuclear Experiment

Abstract

Measurements of the production cross sections of prompt D0{\rm D^0}, D+{\rm D^+}, D+{\rm D^{\ast +}}, Ds+{\rm D_s^+}, Λc+{\rm \Lambda_{c}^{+}}, and Ξc+{\rm \Xi_{c}^{+}} charm hadrons at midrapidity in proton-proton collisions at s=13\sqrt{s}=13 TeV with the ALICE detector are presented. The D-meson cross sections as a function of transverse momentum (pTp_{\rm T}) are provided with improved precision and granularity. The ratios of pTp_{\rm T}-differential meson production cross sections based on this publication and on measurements at different rapidity and collision energy provide a constraint on gluon parton distribution functions at low values of Bjorken-xx (10510410^{-5}-10^{-4}). The measurements of Λc+{\rm \Lambda_{c}^{+}} (Ξc+{\rm \Xi_{c}^{+}}) baryon production extend the measured pTp_{\rm T} intervals down to pT=0(3)p_{\rm T}=0(3)~GeV/c/c. These measurements are used to determine the charm-quark fragmentation fractions and the cc{\rm c\overline{c}} production cross section at midrapidity (y<0.5|y|<0.5) based on the sum of the cross sections of the weakly-decaying ground-state charm hadrons D0{\rm D^0}, D+{\rm D^+}, Ds+{\rm D_s^+}, Λc+{\rm \Lambda_{c}^{+}}, Ξc0{\rm \Xi_{c}^{0}} and, for the first time, Ξc+{\rm \Xi_{c}^{+}}, and of the strongly-decaying J/psipsi mesons. The first measurements of Ξc+{\rm \Xi_{c}^{+}} and Σc0,++{\rm \Sigma_{c}^{0,++}} fragmentation fractions at midrapidity are also reported. A significantly larger fraction of charm quarks hadronising to baryons is found compared to e+^+e^- and ep collisions. The cc{\rm c\overline{c}} production cross section at midrapidity is found to be at the upper bound of state-of-the-art perturbative QCD calculations.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2308.04877,
  title  = {Charm production and fragmentation fractions at midrapidity in pp collisions at $\sqrt{s} = 13$ TeV},
  author = {ALICE Collaboration},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2308.04877},
  year   = {2024}
}

Comments

47 pages, 13 captioned figures, 7 tables, authors from page 42, published version, figures at http://alice-publications.web.cern.ch/node/9560