About possible contribution of intrinsic charm component to inclusive spectra of charmed mesons

TL;DR

This paper investigates how an intrinsic charm component in the proton could significantly influence the production spectra of charmed mesons in high-energy proton-nucleus collisions, with implications for atmospheric muon and neutrino fluxes.

Contribution

It introduces a calculation framework based on the Color Glass Condensate theory to assess the impact of intrinsic charm on charmed particle production spectra.

Findings

Intrinsic charm can dominate in the medium $x_F$ range (0.15-0.7)

Intrinsic charm may significantly affect atmospheric fluxes of prompt muons and neutrinos

The proposed model predicts enhanced charmed meson production at large rapidities.

Abstract

We calculate differential energy spectra ($x_F$-distributions) of charmed particles produced in proton-nucleus collisions, assuming the existence of intrinsic heavy quark components in the proton wave function. For the calculation, the recently proposed factorization scheme is used, based on the Color Glass Condensate theory and specially suited for predictions of a production of particles with large rapidities. It is argued that the intrinsic charm component can, if it exists, dominate in a sum of two components, intrinsic + extrinsic, of the inclusive spectrum of charmed particles produced in proton-nucleus collisions at high energies, in the region of medium $x_F$, $0.15 < x_F < 0.7$, and can give noticeable contribution to atmospheric fluxes of prompt muons and neutrinos.