New vistas in charm production

Abstract

We discuss some new aspects of charm production trigerred by recent observations of the LHCb collaboration. The LHCb collaboration measured small asymmetries in production of $D^+ D^-$ mesons as well as $D_s^+ D_s^-$ mesons. Is this related to initial quark/antiquark asymmetries in the proton ? Here we discuss a scenario in which unfavored fragmentations $q/{\bar q} \to D$ and $s/{\bar s} \to D_s$ are responsible for the asymmetries. We fix the strength of such fragmentations -- transition probabilities, by adjusting to the size of the LHCb asymmetries. This has consequences for production of $D$ mesons in forward directions (large $x_F$) as well as at low energies. Large asymmetries are predicted then in these regions. We present here some of our predictions. Consequences for high-energy neutrino production in the atmosphere are discussed and quantified. The production of $\Lambda_c$ baryon at the LHC is disussed. Large deviations from the independent-parton fragmentation picture are found.