First measurement of $\hat{I}{›}_c$ baryon production in Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}$ = 200 GeV

Abstract

We report on the first measurement of the charmed baryon $\hat{I}{›}_c^{\pm }$ production at midrapidity ($|y|$ $<$ 1) in Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 200 GeV collected by the STAR experiment at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider. The $\hat{I}{›}_c$/$D^0$ (denoting ($\hat{I}{›}_c^{+}+\hat{I}{›}_c^{-}$)/($D^0+\overline{D^0}$)) yield ratio is measured to be 1.08 $\pm$ 0.16 (stat.) $\pm$ 0.26 (sys.) in the 0--20% most central Au+Au collisions for the transverse momentum ($p_T$) range 3 $<$ $p_T$ $<$ 6 GeV/$c$. This is significantly larger than the PYTHIA model calculations for $p+p$ collisions. The measured $\hat{I}{›}_c$/$D^0$ ratio, as a function of $p_T$ and collision centrality, is comparable to the baryon-to-meson ratios for light and strange hadrons in Au+Au collisions. Model calculations including coalescence hadronization for charmed baryon and meson formation reproduce the features of our measured $\hat{I}{›}_c$/$D^0$ ratio.

5 pages, 3 figures