Hadronization studies at the LHC with ALICE

TL;DR

This paper reviews ALICE measurements of heavy-flavour baryons at the LHC, revealing unexpected features in baryon-to-meson ratios across different collision systems, challenging existing hadronization models.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive review of charmed baryon production measurements at the LHC and discusses their implications for understanding hadronization mechanisms.

Findings

Baryon-over-meson ratios vary with collision system and multiplicity.

Charmed baryon formation may not be universal across systems.

Results challenge existing hadronization models.

Abstract

Studies of the production of heavy-flavour baryons are of prominent importance to investigate hadronization mechanisms at the LHC, in particular through the study of the evolution of the baryon-over-meson production ratio. Measurements performed in pp and p--Pb collisions at the LHC have revealed unexpected features, qualitatively similar to what was observed in heavy-ion collisions and, in the charm sector, not in line with the expectations based on previous measurements from $\rm e^+e^-$ colliders and in ep collisions. These results suggest that charmed baryon formation might not be universal and that the baryon-over-meson ratio depends on the collision system or multiplicity. A review of ALICE measurements of charmed baryons, including $\rm \Lambda_c^+/D^0$ as a function of charged-particle multiplicity in pp, p--Pb and Pb--Pb collisions, $\rm \Sigma_c^{0, +, ++}/D^0$ and $\rm \Xi_c^{0, +}/D^0$ as a function of $p_{\rm T}$ in pp collisions and $\rm \Gamma(\Xi_c^0\rightarrow\Xi^-e^+\nu_e)/\Gamma(\Xi_c^0\rightarrow\Xi^-\pi^+)$, will be presented. Comparison to phenomenological models will be also discussed. Emphasis will be given to the discussion of the impact of these studies on the understanding of hadronization processes.