Contribution from Intrinsic Charm Production to Fixed-Target Interactions at the LHC

Abstract

Background: Intrinsic charm, nonperturbative charm in the hadron wavefunction, has long been speculated but has never been satisfactorily proven. Open charm and $J/\psi$ measurements in a fixed-taget configuration at the LHCb searched for this contribution but reported no evidence. Purpose: $\overline{D}$ meson and $J/\psi$ production is calculated for the SMOG fixed-target configuration in the LHCb experiment using a combination of perturbative QCD and intrinsic charm to see whether intrinsic chaarm would indeed be observable in the SMOG kinematics. Methods: Open charm and $J/\psi$ production is calculated to next-to-leading order in perturbative QCD. Because a gas jet nuclear target is used, cold nuclear matter effects are included in the perturbative calculations. The intrinsic charm is calculated assuming production from a $|uudc\overline{c}⟩$ Fock state. Results: The differential rapidity and transverse momentum distributions in $p+\mathrm{Ne}$, $p+\mathrm{He}$ and $p+\mathrm{Ar}$ fixed-target interactions are calculated in the SMOG acceptance and compared to data. The predicted asymmetries between $\overline{D}$ (leading charm) and $D$ (nonleading charm) are also shown. Conclusions: The contribution from intrinisic charm is small and decreases with center of mass energy. The calculations agree well with the current SMOG data, with or without intrinsic charm.

arXiv comment17 pages, 6 figures; title changed upon publications; README and plot files used in the paper are included in the source files

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