Towards a precise measurement of the $\Lambda_c^+/D^0$ ratio at RHIC

Abstract

sPHENIX is a next-generation experiment at RHIC for jet and heavy-flavor physics which was fully commissioned during 2023 and 2024. Using its novel streaming-readout-capable, precision tracking system, sPHENIX collected 100 billion unbiased $p$$+$$p$ collisions, and a further sample of minimum-bias Au-Au collisions, in Run-24. A key measurement of the sPHENIX heavy flavor physics program is the comparison of $\Lambda_c^+$ to $D^0$ differential yields in both Au+Au and $p$$+$$p$ collisions, which probes questions related to the hadronization of heavy-flavor baryons compared to mesons in the Quark-Gluon Plasma medium and in vacuum. At RHIC energies, there is no previous measurement of the $\Lambda_c^+/D^0$ baseline in $p$$+$$p$ collisions, modern Monte Carlo event generators give widely different predictions, and the ratio in Au+Au is only poorly known. These proceedings present the status of measurement from sPHENIX of the $\Lambda_c^+/D^0$ ratio in $p$$+$$p$ collisions.