# Hadronization and Charm-Hadron Ratios in Heavy-Ion Collisions

## TL;DR

This paper introduces a new recombination model for heavy-flavor hadronization in heavy-ion collisions that incorporates space-momentum correlations and improved hadro-chemistry, successfully explaining recent experimental data.

## Contribution

The authors develop a 4-momentum conserving recombination model that includes space-momentum correlations and missing charm-baryon states, advancing the understanding of heavy-flavor hadronization in QGP.

## Key findings

- Model reproduces the $ ext{Lambda}_c/D^0$ ratio observed in experiments.
- Model explains the $D$-meson elliptic flow data.
- Incorporates space-momentum correlations and improved hadro-chemistry.

## Abstract

Understanding the hadronization of the quark-gluon plasma (QGP) remains a challenging problem in the study of strong-interaction matter as produced in ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions (URHICs). The large mass of heavy quarks renders them excellent tracers of the color neutralization process of the QGP when they convert into various heavy-flavor (HF) hadrons. We develop a 4-momentum conserving recombination model for HF mesons and baryons that recovers the thermal and chemical equilibrium limits and accounts for space-momentum correlations (SMCs) of heavy quarks with partons of the hydrodynamically expanding QGP, thereby resolving a long-standing problem in quark coalescence models. The SMCs enhance the recombination of fast-moving heavy quarks with high-flow thermal quarks in the outer regions of the fireball. We also improve the hadro-chemistry with "missing" charm-baryon states, previously found to describe the large $\Lambda_c/D^0$ ratio observed in proton-proton collisions. Both SMCs and hadro-chemistry, as part of our HF hydro-Langevin-recombination model for the strongly coupled QGP, importantly figure in the description of recent data for the $\Lambda_c/D^0$ ratio and $D$-meson elliptic flow in URHICs.