# Double D-meson production in proton-proton and proton-lead collisions at the LHC

## TL;DR

This paper models the simultaneous production of two D mesons in proton-proton and proton-lead collisions at the LHC, using next-to-leading order QCD, and predicts measurable double-parton scattering signals in proton-lead collisions.

## Contribution

It introduces a QCD-based framework for double D-meson production that incorporates double-parton scatterings and makes predictions for proton-lead collisions at the LHC.

## Key findings

- Framework agrees with LHCb proton-proton data
- Predicts measurable double D-meson production in proton-lead collisions
- Provides evidence for double-parton scattering at perturbative scales

## Abstract

We consider the simultaneous production of two heavy-flavoured hadrons - particularly D mesons - at the LHC. We base our calculations on collinearly factorized QCD at next-to-leading order, using the contemporary parton distribution functions and D-meson fragmentation functions. The contributions of double-parton scatterings are included in the approximation of independent partonic interactions. Our framework benchmarks well with the available proton-proton data from the LHCb collaboration giving us confidence to make predictions for proton-lead collisions. Our results indicate that the double D-meson production in proton-lead collisions should be measurable at the LHCb kinematics with the already collected Run-II data, and should provide evidence for double-parton scattering at perturbative scales with a nuclear target.