Heavy Quark Recombination Across Collision Systems: Meson and Baryon production
Abstract
Measurements of heavy-flavor baryons in nucleus--nucleus and proton--proton collisions have provided strong evidence that heavy-quark hadronization cannot be described solely in terms of vacuum fragmentation. In particular, the large enhancement of the Λc/D0, Ξc/D0 and Ωc/D0 ratios observed at RHIC and LHC energies has been successfully described within a coalescence plus fragmentation approach, supporting the relevance of recombination mechanisms in both large and small collision systems. Building on these results, we discuss recent developments in the coalescence hadronization framework. Particular emphasis is given to the production of multi-charmed baryons, namely Ξcc, and Ωccc, whose yields are predicted in a wide range of collision systems from PbPb to KrKr, ArAr and OO collisions. The strong sensitivity of these states, especially Ωccc, to the underlying charm-quark distribution makes them valuable probes of charm thermalization and non-equilibrium effects in the QGP. We also present recent extensions of the model to the beauty sector, including predictions for Λb/B0, Ξb/B0 and Ωb/B0 production. The results indicate sizeable recombination effects and a stronger baryon enhancement than in the charm sector, highlighting the increasing role of coalescence for heavier quarks. Finally, we briefly comment on ongoing developments toward a unified description of open and hidden heavy flavor through the application of the same framework to quarkonium production in small collision systems.
Related
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BibTeX
@misc{minissale2026heavy,
title = {{Heavy Quark Recombination Across Collision Systems: Meson and Baryon production}},
author = {Vincenzo Minissale and Salvatore Plumari and Maria Lucia Sambataro and Gloria Calà and Vincenzo Greco},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2609.35546},
eprint = {2609.35546},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.35546},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Heavy Quark Recombination Across Collision Systems: Meson and Baryon production
AU - Vincenzo Minissale
AU - Salvatore Plumari
AU - Maria Lucia Sambataro
AU - Gloria Calà
AU - Vincenzo Greco
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/28
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2609.35546
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.35546
AB - Measurements of heavy-flavor baryons in nucleus--nucleus and proton--proton collisions have provided strong evidence that heavy-quark hadronization cannot be described solely in terms of vacuum fragmentation. In particular, the large enhancement of the Λ_c/D^0, Ξ_c/D^0 and Ω_c/D^0 ratios observed at RHIC and LHC energies has been successfully described within a coalescence plus fragmentation approach, supporting the relevance of recombination mechanisms in both large and small collision systems. Building on these results, we discuss recent developments in the coalescence hadronization framework. Particular emphasis is given to the production of multi-charmed baryons, namely Ξ_cc, and Ω_ccc, whose yields are predicted in a wide range of collision systems from PbPb to KrKr, ArAr and OO collisions. The strong sensitivity of these states, especially Ω_ccc, to the underlying charm-quark distribution makes them valuable probes of charm thermalization and non-equilibrium effects in the QGP. We also present recent extensions of the model to the beauty sector, including predictions for Λ_b/B^0, Ξ_b/B^0 and Ω_b/B^0 production. The results indicate sizeable recombination effects and a stronger baryon enhancement than in the charm sector, highlighting the increasing role of coalescence for heavier quarks. Finally, we briefly comment on ongoing developments toward a unified description of open and hidden heavy flavor through the application of the same framework to quarkonium production in small collision systems.
ER -