Heavy Flavour Production in pp and Heavy Ion Collisions in QCD Up to LHC Energies

TL;DR

This paper analyzes charm and beauty production in proton-proton and heavy ion collisions using perturbative QCD, comparing theoretical predictions with experimental data from RHIC and providing forecasts for LHC energies.

Contribution

It determines key parameters of charm production in QCD and compares different theoretical approaches with experimental data, highlighting discrepancies and nuclear effects.

Findings

RHIC data underestimates theoretical predictions

Parameter values for charm quark mass and QCD scale are extracted

Predictions for LHC energies are provided

Abstract

Charm production in pp collisions is considered in the framework of perturbative QCD. The values of two parameters, the charm quark mass $m_c$ and the QCD scale mu^2, are determined from the comparison of the theoretical calculations with experimental data. The RHIC data on charm and beauty production are compared with the k_T-factorization approach predictions and with standard NLO QCD. The calculated results underestimate the STAR Collaboration data. The role of possible nuclear effects is discussed. The predictions for LHC energies are also given.