Measurement of $\omega$ meson production in pp collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV

TL;DR

This paper reports the first measurement of $$ meson production in proton-proton collisions at 13 TeV, covering a wide transverse momentum range and comparing results with theoretical models, revealing discrepancies and consistencies.

Contribution

It provides the first extensive measurement of $$ meson production at 13 TeV, extending the $p_T$ range and comparing with theoretical predictions to improve understanding of meson production mechanisms.

Findings

PYTHIA8.2 overestimates data by up to 50%

NLO calculations with broken SU(3) model agree well with data

The $/$ ratio is constant above 4 GeV/c at 0.578

Abstract

The $p_{\rm T}$-differential cross section of $\omega$ meson production in pp collisions at $\sqrt{s}= 13$ TeV at midrapidity ($|y|<0.5$) was measured with the ALICE detector at the LHC, covering an unprecedented transverse-momentum range of $1.6 <p_{\rm T}< 50$ GeV/$c$. The meson is reconstructed via the $\omega\rightarrow\pi^+\pi^-\pi^0$ decay channel. The results are compared with various theoretical calculations: PYTHIA8.2 with the Monash 2013 tune overestimates the data by up to 50%, whereas good agreement is observed with Next-to-Leading Order (NLO) calculations incorporating $\omega$ fragmentation using a broken SU(3) model. The $\omega/\pi^0$ ratio is presented and compared with theoretical calculations and the available measurements at lower collision energies. The presented data triples the $p_{\rm T}$ ranges of previously available measurements. A constant ratio of $C^{\omega/\pi^0}=0.578\pm0.006~\text{(stat.)}\pm 0.013~\text{(syst.)}$ is found above a transverse momentum of $4$ GeV/$c$, which is in agreement with previous findings at lower collision energies within the systematic and statistical uncertainties.