$D$-meson production in high energy $pA$ collisions within the QCD color dipole transverse momentum representation

TL;DR

This paper investigates D-meson production in high-energy proton-nucleus collisions using the dipole approach with unintegrated gluon distributions, analyzing nonlinear QCD effects and comparing predictions with experimental data.

Contribution

It introduces a novel application of the dipole framework with geometric scaling to model D-meson production, incorporating nonlinear QCD dynamics and contrasting with the Glauber-Gribov approach.

Findings

The model reproduces the transverse momentum spectra observed in experiments.

Nuclear modification ratios show significant effects of nonlinear QCD dynamics.

Predictions align well with ALICE and LHCb measurements across rapidity bins.

Abstract

The $D$-meson production is investigated by considering the unintegrated gluon distribution within the dipole approach in the momentum representation. We analyze the $D$-meson spectrum accounting for the effects of nonlinear behavior of the QCD dynamics which can be accordingly addressed in the dipole framework. The unintegrated gluon distribution is obtained by using geometric scaling property and the results are compared to the Glauber-Gribov framework. The absolute transverse momentum spectra and the nuclear modification ratios are investigated. Predictions are compared with the experimental measurements by the ALICE and LHCb Collaborations in $pA$ collisions for different rapidity bins.