Coalescence plus fragmentation approach for the hadronization mechanism of heavy hadrons from AA to pp collisions

¹ INFN - Laboratori Nazionali del Sud, via S.Sofia 62, 95123 Catania ( Italy )
² Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia “Ettore Majorana” Università di Catania Via S. Sofia, 64 95123 Catania ( Italy )

^* e-mail: vincenzo.minissale@lns.infn.it

Published online: 1 March 2023

Abstract

One of the present challenge for the theoretical understanding of heavy-quark hadronization is represented by the description of the measurements of heavy hadron production in pp, pA and AA collisions from RHIC to top LHC energies. The Λ_c/D⁰ ratio observed in AA collisions has a value of the order of the unity, and experimental measurements in pp collisions at both √S = 5.02 TeV and √S = 13 TeV have shown ratios for charm baryons Λ_c,Ξ_c⁰ and Ω_c⁰ respect to D⁰ meson larger than that measured and expected in e⁺e⁻, ep collisions. We present an hadronization mechanism based on the coalescence and fragmentation processes, and the results obtained in AA collisions for D⁰ and Λ_c. related baryon to meson ratios at RHIC and LHC. We present moreover results obtained for the charmed hadron production in pp collisions at LHC energies assuming the formation of an hot QCD matter at finite temperature.We calculate the heavy baryon/meson ratio and the p_T spectra of charmed hadrons D⁰. Λ_c⁰ and the recently measured Ξ_c baryon, finding an enhancement in comparison with the ratio observed for e⁺e⁻, ep collisions; with this approach we also predict a significant production of Qc.