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

Abstract

Treating the light-flavor constituent quarks and antiquarks that can well describe the data of light-flavor hadrons in $pp$ collisions at $\sqrt{s}=7$ TeV as the underlying source of chromatically neutralizing the charm quarks of low transverse momenta ($p_{T}$), we show that the experimental data of $p_{T}$ spectra of single-charm hadrons $D^{0,+}$, $D^{*+}$ $D_{s}^{+}$, $\Lambda_{c}^{+}$ and $\Xi_{c}^{0}$ at mid-rapidity in the low $p_{T}$ range ($2\lesssim p_{T}\lesssim7$ GeV/$c$) in $pp$ collisions at $\sqrt{s}=7$ 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 $p_{T}$ 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 effective constituent quark degrees of freedom for the small parton system created in $pp$ collisions at LHC energies.