Centrality dependence of charmed-meson photoproduction in ultrarelativistic heavy ion collisions

TL;DR

This paper investigates how the production of high-pT charmed mesons varies with collision centrality in ultrarelativistic heavy ion collisions, highlighting the significance of hard photoproduction processes at RHIC and LHC.

Contribution

It provides a calculation of the centrality dependence of charmed-meson production considering hard photoproduction, emphasizing its non-negligible role in heavy ion collisions.

Findings

Hard photoproduction significantly affects charmed-meson yields.

Modification of production processes is notable at RHIC and LHC energies.

Results suggest the need to include photoproduction in theoretical models.

Abstract

We calculate the centrality dependence of inclusive cross section of large-pT charmed-meson ($D^{0}$, $D^{*}$, $D^{*+}$, and $D_{s}^{+}$) from heavy quark fragmentation by the hard photoproduction processes for the nucleus-nucleus collisions in ultrarelativistic heavy ion collisions. The numerical results indicate that the modification of the hard photoproduction processes cannot be negligible for the charmed-meson production in Au-Au collisions at Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) and Pb-Pb collisions at Large Hadron Collider (LHC).