Measurement of beauty-quark production in pp collisions at s = 13 TeV via non-prompt D mesons


Acharya S., Adamová D., Agarwal A., Aglieri Rinella G., Aglietta L., Agnello M., ...More

Journal of High Energy Physics, vol.2024, no.10, 2024 (SCI-Expanded) identifier identifier

  • Publication Type: Article / Article
  • Volume: 2024 Issue: 10
  • Publication Date: 2024
  • Doi Number: 10.1007/jhep10(2024)110
  • Journal Name: Journal of High Energy Physics
  • Journal Indexes: Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED), Scopus, Academic Search Premier, INSPEC, zbMATH, Directory of Open Access Journals
  • Keywords: Hadron-Hadron Scattering, Heavy Quark Production, QCD
  • Yıldız Technical University Affiliated: Yes

Abstract

The pT-differential production cross sections of non-prompt D0, D+, and Ds+ mesons originating from beauty-hadron decays are measured in proton–proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy s = 13 TeV. The measurements are performed at midrapidity, |y| < 0.5, with the data sample collected by ALICE from 2016 to 2018. The results are in agreement with predictions from several perturbative QCD calculations. The fragmentation fraction of beauty quarks to strange mesons divided by the one to non-strange mesons, fs/(fu + fd), is found to be 0.114 ± 0.016 (stat.) ± 0.006 (syst.) ± 0.003 (BR) ± 0.003 (extrap.). This value is compatible with previous measurements at lower centre-of-mass energies and in different collision systems in agreement with the assumption of universality of fragmentation functions. In addition, the dependence of the non-prompt D meson production on the centre-of-mass energy is investigated by comparing the results obtained at s = 5.02 and 13 TeV, showing a hardening of the non-prompt D-meson pT-differential production cross section at higher s. Finally, the bb¯ production cross section per unit of rapidity at midrapidity is calculated from the non-prompt D0, D+, Ds+, and Λc+ hadron measurements, obtaining dσ/dy=75.2±3.2stat.±5.2syst.−3.2+12.3extrap. μb.