Investigating charm quark interactions and hadronization in PbPb collisions with D_s^± and Λ_c^± measurements

Indian Institute of Technology Madras, India

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Published online: 17 April 2026

Abstract

Charm quarks serve as a sensitive probe of the Quark-Gluon Plasma (QGP), providing direct insights into its formation, evolution, and properties. In this proceeding, we present new high-precision measurements from the CMS experiment in Pb-Pb collisions at √s_NN = 5.02 TeV. The elliptic (v₂ ) and triangular (v₃) flow of prompt D_s^± mesons are measured with high precision, extending the kinematic coverage. A comparison of the D_s^± flow to that of D⁰ mesons is performed to investigate the impact of strange quark hadronization on charm quark collectivity. We further explore charm quark hadronization by measuring the Λ_c^±/D⁰ nuclear modification factor (R_AA) as a function of transverse momentum for different collision centralities, and the Λ_c^±/D⁰ yield ratio in pp, pPb, and Pb-Pb collisions. These results provide crucial constraints on charm quark energy loss and hadronization mechanisms, offering critical tests for theoretical models and advancing our understanding of heavy quark dynamics in the QGP