New feature of low $$p_{T}$$ pT charm quark hadronization in pp collisions at $$\sqrt{s}=7$$ s=7 TeV

Abstract

Abstract Treating the light-flavor constituent quarks and antiquarks whose momentum information is extracted from the data of soft light-flavor hadrons in pp collisions at $$\sqrt{s}=7$$ s=7 TeV as the underlying source of chromatically neutralizing the charm quarks of low transverse momenta ($$p_{T}$$ pT ), we show that the experimental data of $$p_{T}$$ pT spectra of single-charm hadrons $$D^{0,+}$$ D0,+ , $$D^{*+}$$ D∗+ $$D_{s}^{+}$$ Ds+ , $$\varLambda _{c}^{+}$$ Λc+ and $$\varXi _{c}^{0}$$ Ξc0 at mid-rapidity in the low $$p_{T}$$ pT range ($$2\lesssim p_{T}\lesssim 7$$ 2≲pT≲7 GeV/c) in pp collisions at $$\sqrt{s}=7$$ s=7 TeV can be well understood by the equal-velocity combination of perturbatively created charm quarks and those light-flavor constituent quarks and antiquarks. This suggests a possible new scenario of low $$p_{T}$$ pT charm quark hadronization, in contrast to the traditional fragmentation mechanism, in pp collisions at LHC energies. This is also another support for the exhibition of the soft constituent quark degrees of freedom for the small parton system created in pp collisions at LHC energies.