Hadronic production of the doubly charmed baryon via the proton–nucleus and the nucleus–nucleus collisions at the RHIC and LHC

Abstract

Abstract We present a detailed discussion on the doubly charmed baryon $$\Xi _{cc}$$ Ξcc production at the RHIC and LHC via the proton–nucleus (p–N) and nucleus–nucleus (N–N) collision modes. The extrinsic charm mechanism via the subprocesses $$g+c\rightarrow (cc)[n]+\bar{c}$$ g+c→(cc)[n]+c¯ and $$c+c\rightarrow (cc)[n]+g$$ c+c→(cc)[n]+g together with the gluon-gluon fusion mechanism via the subprocess $$g+g\rightarrow (cc)[n]+\bar{c}+\bar{c}$$ g+g→(cc)[n]+c¯+c¯ have been taken into consideration, where the intermediate diquark is in $$[n]=[^1S_0]_\mathbf{6}$$ [n]=[1S0]6 -state or $$[^3S_1]_{\bar{\mathbf{3}}}$$ [3S1]3¯ -state, respectively. Total and differential cross sections have been discussed under various collision energies. To compare with the $$\Xi _{cc}$$ Ξcc production via proton-proton collision mode at the LHC, we observe that sizable $$\Xi _{cc}$$ Ξcc events can also be generated via p–N and N–N collision modes at the RHIC and LHC. For examples, about $$8.1\times 10^7$$ 8.1×107 and $$6.7\times 10^7$$ 6.7×107 $$\Xi _{cc}$$ Ξcc events can be accumulated in p-Pb and Pb-Pb collision modes at the LHC within one operation year.