First $D^0+\overline{D}^0$ measurement in heavy-ion collisions at SPS energies with NA61/SHINE

TL;DR

This paper reports the first measurement of $D^0$ and $ar{D}^0$ meson yields in heavy-ion collisions at SPS energies using the upgraded NA61/SHINE detector, providing insights into the properties of hot dense matter and the quark-gluon plasma.

Contribution

It presents the first experimental measurement of open charm mesons at SPS energies with a new vertex detector, enabling studies of charm production in heavy-ion collisions.

Findings

First $D^0$ yields measured at SPS energies.

Comparison with theoretical models discussed.

Provides data for understanding quark-gluon plasma formation.

Abstract

The measurement of open charm meson production provides a tool for the investigation of the properties of the hot and dense matter created in nucleus-nucleus collisions at relativistic energies. In particular, charm mesons are of vivid interest in the context of the study of the nature of the phase-transition between confined hadronic matter and the quark-gluon plasma. Recently, the experimental setup of the NA61/SHINE experiment was upgraded with the high spatial resolution Vertex Detector which enables the reconstruction of secondary vertices from open charm meson decays. In this presentation the first $D^0$ meson yields at the SPS energy regime will be shown. The analysis used the most central 20\% of Xe+La collisions at 150A GeV/c from the data set collected in 2017. This allowed the estimation of the corrected yields (dN/dy) for $D^0+\overline{D}^0$ via its $\pi^{+/-} + K^{-/+}$ decay channel at mid-rapidity in the center-of-mass system. The results will be compared and discussed in the context of several model calculations including statistical and dynamical approaches