Decay angular distributions of $K^*$ and $D^*$ mesons as a tool for the dynamics of open strange and charm production

TL;DR

This paper investigates how decay angular distributions of $K^*$ and $D^*$ mesons can reveal the underlying dynamics of open strange and charm production, providing a new tool for understanding these processes.

Contribution

It introduces the analysis of decay spin-density matrix elements as a method to probe production mechanisms of vector mesons.

Findings

Decay distributions are sensitive to production mechanisms.

Measurement of these distributions can distinguish different production models.

Provides a new approach to study open strange and charm production.

Abstract

We analyze decay spin-density matrix elements of $K^*$ and $D^*$ vector mesons and find that the corresponding vector meson decay distributions are sensitive to the production mechanisms. This suggests that the measurement of these quantities can be used to unravel the production mechanisms.