• ALICE Collaboration

The prompt production of the charm baryon Λc+ and the Λc+/D0 production ratios were measured at midrapidity with the ALICE detector in pp and p-Pb collisions at sNN=5.02 TeV. These new measurements show a clear decrease of the Λc+/D0 ratio with increasing transverse momentum (pT) in both collision systems in the range 2<pT<12 GeV/c, exhibiting similarities with the light-flavor baryon-to-meson ratios p/π and Λ/KS0. At low pT, predictions that include additional color-reconnection mechanisms beyond the leading-color approximation, assume the existence of additional higher-mass charm-baryon states, or include hadronization via coalescence can describe the data, while predictions driven by charm-quark fragmentation processes measured in e+e- and e-p collisions significantly underestimate the data. The results presented in this Letter provide significant evidence that the established assumption of universality (colliding-system independence) of parton-to-hadron fragmentation is not sufficient to describe charm-baryon production in hadronic collisions at LHC energies.

Original languageEnglish
Article number202301
Number of pages13
JournalPhysical Review Letters
Volume127
Issue number20
DOIs
StatePublished - 9 Nov 2021

    Scopus subject areas

  • Physics and Astronomy(all)

    Research areas

  • MULTIPLICITY DEPENDENCE, RAPIDITY, PROTON, KAON, PION

ID: 88919039