$B_c$ enhancement with non-thermalized bottom quarks in nuclear collisions at Large Hadron Collider

TL;DR

This paper investigates the production of $B_c$ mesons in high-energy nuclear collisions at the LHC, highlighting how their yields are affected by the thermalization state of bottom quarks and the interplay of dissociation and regeneration processes.

Contribution

It introduces a transport model that accounts for dissociation and regeneration of $B_c$ mesons, revealing the impact of non-thermalized bottom quarks on their production in nuclear collisions.

Findings

$B_c$ yield is significantly enhanced in nuclear collisions.

The yield's dependence on centrality and momentum reflects bottom quark thermalization.

Experimental data favors a non-thermal bottom quark distribution.

Abstract

We study $B_c$ production in high-energy nuclear collisions in a transport approach with dissociation and regeneration at finite temperatures. Due to the rare production in p+p collisions and the strong combination of uncorrelated $c$ and $\bar b$ quarks in the quark-gluon plasma, the $B_c$ yield is significantly enhanced in the nuclear collisions at the Large Hadron Collider. Moreover, the centrality and momentum-dependent yield of $B_c$ sensitively reflect the thermalization degree of bottom quarks. And the newly observed experimental data favors a far from the thermal bottom quark distribution in the quark-gluon plasma.