May 17 – 22, 2021
US/Eastern timezone

Charm and multi-charm baryon measurements via strangeness tracking in the upgraded ALICE detectors

May 18, 2021, 11:10 AM
20m
Room D (Zoom)

Room D

Zoom

zoom co-host: Mriganka Mouli Mondal https://stonybrook.zoom.us/j/93238724142
Experimental talk Open questions and new developments Upgrades and New Experiments

Speaker

David Dobrigkeit Chinellato (University of Campinas UNICAMP (BR))

Description

A fundamental ingredient of the ALICE physics programme for the new decade is a comprehensive study of charm and multi-charm baryon production. Because charm is exclusively produced in initial hard scatterings, such measurements may provide unique insight into the QGP medium as well as hadronization from proton-proton to lead-lead collisions.

We will present a new method for detection of multiply charmed baryons via their decays into strange baryons, using `strangeness tracking'. In this method, the state-of-the-art upgraded silicon detectors in ALICE during Runs 3, 4 and beyond will enable the novel possibility of tracking strange hadrons directly before they decay, leading to a very significant improvement in impact-parameter resolution. In this work, we will discuss how this new technique will be crucial to distinguish secondary strange baryons originating from charm decays from primary strange baryons. This is a particularly interesting possibility for the $\Omega^{-}$ baryon coming from $\Omega_{c}^{0}$→$\Omega\pi$ decays, since there is no other feeddown source for $\Omega^-$. This, in turn, means that the main $\Omega^-$ background for the $\Omega_c$ measurement will point most accurately to the primary vertex, unlike pions or protons from other charmed baryon decays.

We will illustrate the achievable performance of strangeness tracking for the Run 3 configuration of ALICE with the upgraded Inner Tracking System, which is fully instrumented with silicon pixel detectors. Moreover, we will discuss the potential of this technique in a future experiment with an extensive silicon tracking detector with a first layer very close to the interaction point. Finally, we will also cover other potential major applications of strangeness tracking, including measurements of hypernuclei such as the $^{3}_{\Lambda}$H.

Collaboration ALICE

Primary author

David Dobrigkeit Chinellato (University of Campinas UNICAMP (BR))

Presentation materials