Prompt and non-prompt charm baryons with ALICE

TL;DR

This paper presents recent ALICE measurements of prompt and non-prompt charm-baryon production in pp and p--Pb collisions, revealing non-universal charm fragmentation and insights into hadronization mechanisms in different collision environments.

Contribution

It provides new, precise measurements of charm-baryon yield ratios, fragmentation fractions, and production cross sections in pp and p--Pb collisions at the LHC.

Findings

Charm-baryon to meson ratios are higher in pp and p--Pb than in e+e- collisions.

Prompt and non-prompt charm-hadron production ratios vary with collision system.

Results suggest non-universality of charm fragmentation across different environments.

Abstract

Recent measurements of prompt charm-baryon production at midrapidity in pp and p--Pb collisions show baryon-to-meson yield ratios significantly higher than those in $\rm e^+e^-$ collisions, suggesting that the charm fragmentation is not universal across different collision systems. Thus, more precise and broader measurements of prompt charm-baryon production are crucial to study the charm quark hadronization in a partonic-rich environment like the one produced in pp collisions at the LHC energies. Prompt charm baryon-to-meson yield ratios in proton--nucleus collisions provide important information about possible additional modification of hadronization mechanisms, on cold nuclear matter effects, and on the possible presence of collective effects that could modify the production of heavy-flavor hadrons. The non-prompt charm-hadron production can provide information about the beauty sector and can be used to study flavor dependence of heavy-quark hadronization. In this contribution, the most recent results on prompt and non-prompt charm-hadron yield ratios in pp and p--Pb collisions and on charm fragmentation fractions and charm production cross section at midrapidity per unit of rapidity measured by ALICE are discussed.