Heidelberg 2015 – scientific programme

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HK: Fachverband Physik der Hadronen und Kerne

HK 5: Heavy Ion Collisions and QCD Phases 1

HK 5.4: Talk

Monday, March 23, 2015, 15:30–15:45, T/HS1

D-meson production at ultra-low transverse momentum in pp collisions with ALICE at the LHC — •Christian Möhler for the ALICE collaboration — Physikalisches Institut, University of Heidelberg

The measurement of charm production provides valuable insights into the properties of the Quark-Gluon Plasma, which is expected to be formed in ultra-relativistic heavy-ion collisions at the LHC at CERN. Current ALICE results of D-meson production using an analysis strategy based on the reconstruction of secondary decay vertices are limited to p_T > 1 GeV/c, due to the small Lorentz boost at low momentum of the D meson.
We present a new measurement of the p_T-differential cross section of prompt D⁰ production at mid-rapidity in pp collisions at √s = 7 TeV. By giving up the topological selection, the presented analysis extends the measurable p_T-range down to zero. The p_T-integrated charm production cross section at mid-rapidity in pp collisions, which serves as an essential baseline for Pb–Pb collisions, can thus be given without extrapolation for the first time at the LHC, resulting in a significantly increased precision.