Nuclei are transparent for a heavy intrinsic charm (IC) component of the beam hadrons, what leads to an enhanced nuclear dependence of open charm production at large Feynman x_F. Indeed, such an effect was observed recently in the SELEX experiment. Our calculations reproduce well the data, providing strong support for the presence of IC in hadrons in amount less than 1%. Moreover, we performed an analysis of nuclear effects in J/Psi production and found a similar, although weaker effect
We reply to the Comment of Brodsky and Gardner on our paper "New limits on intrinsic charm in the nucleon from global analysis of parton distributions" [Phys. Rev. Lett. 114, 082002 (2015)]. We address a number of incorrect claims made about our fitting methodology, and elaborate how global QCD analysis of all available high-energy data provides no evidence for a large intrinsic charm component of the nucleon.
Over the past $\sim\!\! 10$ years, the topic of the nucleon's nonperturbative or $\textit{intrinsic}$ charm (IC) content has enjoyed something of a renaissance, largely motivated by theoretical developments involving quark modelers and PDF fitters. In this talk I will briefly describe the importance of intrinsic charm to various issues in high-energy phenomenology, and survey recent progress in constraining its overall normalization and contribution to the momentum sum rule of the nucleon. I end with the conclusion that progress on the side of calculation has now placed the onus on experiment …
In this note we provide a detailed derivation of the kinematic limit of the charm production in fixed-target experiments with the intrinsic charm coming from the target. In addition, we discuss the first measurement of charm quark production in the fixed-target configuration at the LHC.
A calculation of the next-to-leading order exclusive extrinsic charm quark differential distributions in deeply inelastic electroproduction has recently been completed. Using these results we compare the NLO extrinsic contributions to the charm structure function $F_2(x,Q^2,m_c^2)$ with the corresponding NLO intrinsic contributions. The results of this analysis are compared with the EMC DIS charm quark data and evidence for an intrinsic charm component in the proton is found.
Measurement of $Z$ bosons produced in association with charm jets $(Zc)$ in proton-proton collisions in the forward region provides a direct probe of a potential non-perturbative (intrinsic) charm component in the proton wave function. We provide a detailed study of the potential to measure $Zc$ production at the LHCb experiment in Runs 2 and 3 of the LHC. The sensitivity to valence-like (sea-like) intrinsic charm is predicted to be $\langle x \rangle_{\rm IC} \gtrsim 0.3\%(1\%)$. The impact of intrinsic charm on Higgs production at the LHC, including $Hc$, is also discussed in detail.
In this paper we study the $Z$, $Z+$ jet, $Z+c$ and $Z+c+$ jet production in $pp$ collisions at the LHC considering different models for an intrinsic charm content of the proton. We analyse the impact of the intrinsic charm in the rapidity and transverse momentum distributions for these different processes. Our results indicated that differently from the other processes, the $Z+c$ cross section is strongly affected by the presence of the intrinsic charm. Moreover, we propose the analysis of the ratios $R(Z+c/Z) \equiv σ(Z+c)/σ(Z)$ and $R(Z+c/Z+\mbox{jet}) \equiv σ(Z+c)/σ(Z+\mbox{jet})$ and dem…
We compute the predictions of intrinsic charm for deep-inelastic scattering at high-Q^2 and compare to HERA data. With the inclusion of constraints from low-energy data, enhancements beyond the predictions of standard structure functions are very modest, but peaking in the leptoquark mass variable is present near 200 GeV. Ultimately, the ability of HERA to probe the intrinsic charm hypothesis could be very substantial.
We perform a comprehensive analysis of the role of nonperturbative (or intrinsic) charm in the nucleon, generated through Fock state expansions of the nucleon wave function involving five-quark virtual states represented by charmed mesons and baryons. We consider contributions from a variety of charmed meson-baryon states and find surprisingly dominant effects from the (Dbar^{*0} Lambda_c+) configuration. Particular attention is paid to the existence and persistence of high-x structure for intrinsic charm, and the x dependence of the c-cbar asymmetry predicted in meson-baryon models. We discus…
The discovery of extraterrestrial neutrinos in the $\sim$ 30 TeV -- PeV energy range by IceCube provides new constraints on high energy astrophysics. An important background to the signal are the prompt neutrinos which originate from the decay of charm hadrons produced by high energy cosmic-ray particles interacting in the Earth's atmosphere. It is conventional to use the calculations of charm hadroproduction using gluon splitting $g \to c \bar c$ alone. However, QCD predicts an additional "intrinsic" component of the heavy quark distribution which arises from diagrams where heavy quarks are m…
A detailed study of the impact of the data collected by the European Muon Collaboration (EMC) on the parton distribution function (PDF) of the charm quark is presented. The analysis is performed in the NNPDF framework, and the charm PDF is freely parametrized on equal footing as light quark and gluon distributions. We find that variations in the treatment of EMC data do not modify the charm PDF and do not affect our previous conclusion on the presence of an intrinsic component in the charm PDF.
We discuss semileptonic B decays of the form B -> J/Psi e nu X as possible probes of intrinsic charm. We calculate the leading order perturbative contribution to the process B- -> J/Psi e- nu_e X and find it to be unobservably small, with a branching ratio ~ 10^-10. We propose a modified spectator model to estimate the intrinsic charm contribution and find that it can be significantly larger, with a branching ratio for B -> (c cbar) e- nu_e X as large as 5 X 10^-7. We show that the process could be observed at these levels by CDF assuming a Run II integrated luminosity of 15 fb^-1, making this…
We study the possibility of intrinsic (non-perturbative) charm in parton distribution functions (PDF) of the proton, within the context of the CT10 next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) global analysis. Three models for the intrinsic charm (IC) quark content are compared: (i) $\hat{c}(x) = 0$ (zero-IC model); (ii) $\hat{c}(x)$ is parametrized by a valence-like parton distribution (BHPS model); (iii) $\hat{c}(x)$ is parametrized by a sea-like parton distribution (SEA model). In these models, the intrinsic charm content, $\hat{c}(x)$, is included in the charm PDF at the matching scale $Q_c=m_c=1.…
In this paper we show that the intrinsic heavy-quark QCD mechanism for the hadroproduction of heavy hadrons at large $x_F$ can resolve the apparent conflict between measurements of double-charm baryons by the SELEX fixed-target experiment and the LHCb experiment at the LHC collider. We show that both experiments are compatible, and that both results can be correct. The observed spectroscopy of double-charm hadrons is in agreement with the predictions of supersymmetric light front holographic QCD.
Contributions to the quark flavor and spin observables from the intrinsic charm in the proton are discussed in the SU(4) quark meson fluctuation model. Our results suggest that the probability of finding the intrinsic charm in the proton is less than 1%. The intrinsic charm helicity is small and negative, $Δc \simeq -(0.003\sim 0.015)$. The fraction of the total quark helicity carried by the intrinsic charm is less than 2%, and $c_\up/c_\dw$=35/67.
The complete understanding of the basic constituents of hadrons and the hadronic dynamics at high energies are two of the main challenges for the theory of strong interactions. In particular, the existence of intrinsic heavy quark components in the hadron wave function must be confirmed (or disproved). In this paper we propose a new mechanism for the production of $D$-mesons at forward rapidities based on the Color Glass Condensate (CGC) formalism and demonstrate that the resulting transverse momentum spectra are strongly dependent on the behavior of the charm distribution at large Bjorken $x$…
The asymmetric intrinsic charm in the nucleon and its implications for the $D^{0}$ production in the LHCb $p\!+\!\!^{20}\!N\!e$ fixed-target experiment
The framework of the expansion by subgraphs is used to compute asymptotic expansions for the vector and the tensor currents in the limit of large quark masses. We use the results to obtain an estimate for the influence of heavy quarks on the nucleon electromagnetic and tensor form factors.
We present the results of a calculation of the intrinsic charm quark contribution to $J/ψ$ plus open charm associated production at large transverse momentum in hadron collisions at high energies. It is shown that the value of the cross section for such process and its energy dependence are significantly determined by the choice of charm quark distribution function. We find that intrinsic charm contribution to inclusive $J/ψ$ hadroproduction is about 1\% of the total contribution of all mechanisms.
The quark spin and flavor structure of the nucleon is discussed in the SU(4) symmetry breaking chiral quark model. The spin and flavor contents for charm quarks and anti-charm quarks are predicted and compared with the results given by other models. The intrinsic charm quark contribution to the Ellis-Jaffe sum rule is discussed.
We study $Λ_c^\pm$ production in $pN$ and $π^-N$ interactions. Recent experimental data from the SELEX and E791 Collaborations at FNAL provide important information on the production mechanism of charm hadrons. In particular, the production of the $Λ_c$ baryon provides a good test of the intrinsic charm and the recombination mechanisms, which have been proposed to explain the so called leading particle effects.
We present a new global QCD analysis of parton distribution functions, allowing for possible intrinsic charm (IC) contributions in the nucleon inspired by light-front models. The analysis makes use of the full range of available high-energy scattering data for Q^2 > 1 GeV^2 and W^2 > 3.5 GeV^2, including fixed-target proton and deuteron cross sections at lower energies that were excluded in previous global analyses. The expanded data set places more stringent constraints on the momentum carried by IC, with <x>_IC at most 0.5% (corresponding to an IC normalization of ~ 1%) at the 4-sigma level …
The effects of the intrinsic charm on the hadronic production of $Ξ_{cc}$ are studied. By taking reasonable intrinsic charm component into account, the change of the theoretical prediction on the production of $Ξ_{cc}$ for LHC and Tevatron is small, but in contrast it may enhance significantly for SELEX. The reason is that the collision energy at LHC and Tevatron is so large that the gluon-gluon fusion sub-process, which is irrelevant to intrinsic charm, becomes dominant. But the situation for SELEX is quite different. Our numerical results for SELEX show that by considering all the contributi…
At LHCb, proton parton distribution functions (PDFs) can be studied in a unique phase space complementary to that accessible by ATLAS and CMS, corresponding to low and high values of Bjorken-$x$. The measurements of vector boson production in the forward region, with and without an associated jet, are presented. These measurements can be used to constrain the proton PDFs, and in particular, the production of a $Z$ boson in association with a $c$-jet can be studied to measure the intrinsic charm content of the proton.
The predictions for the atmospheric neutrino flux at high energies strongly depend on the contribution of prompt neutrinos, which are determined by the production of charmed meson in the atmosphere at very forward rapidities. In this paper we estimate the related cross sections taking into account the presence of an intrinsic charm (IC) component in the proton wave function and the QCD dynamics modified by the onset of saturation effects. The impact on the predictions for the prompt neutrino flux is investigated assuming different values for the probability to find the IC in the nucleon. Compa…
We discuss few, apparently different, but actually tightly related problems: a)Strangeness in the nucleon; b) B --> eta' decays; c)Intrinsic charm in the proton spin problem. We argue that all these problems have a common origin and related to the OZI rule violation in 0^{\pm} vacuum channels . It leads to a noticeable role of a nonvalence component with 0^{\pm} quantum numbers in a hadron.}
A next-to-leading order analysis of inelastic electroproduction of charm is performed using an interpolating scheme which maps smoothly onto massless QCD evolution at large Q^2 and photon-gluon fusion at small Q^2. In contrast with earlier analyses, this scheme allows the inclusion of quark and target mass effects and heavy quark thresholds, as well as possible non-perturbative, or intrinsic, charm contributions. We find no conclusive evidence in favor of an intrinsic charm component in the nucleon, although several data points which disagree with perturbative QCD expectations will need to be …
The theory of the strong force, quantum chromodynamics, describes the proton in terms of quarks and gluons. The proton is a state of two up quarks and one down quark bound by gluons, but quantum theory predicts that in addition there is an infinite number of quark-antiquark pairs. Both light and heavy quarks, whose mass is respectively smaller or bigger than the mass of the proton, are revealed inside the proton in high-energy collisions. However, it is unclear whether heavy quarks also exist as a part of the proton wavefunction, which is determined by non-perturbative dynamics and accordingly…
We calculate differential energy spectra ($x_F$-distributions) of charmed particles produced in proton-nucleus collisions, assuming the existence of intrinsic heavy quark components in the proton wave function. For the calculation, the recently proposed factorization scheme is used, based on the Color Glass Condensate theory and specially suited for predictions of a production of particles with large rapidities. It is argued that the intrinsic charm component can, if it exists, dominate in a sum of two components, intrinsic + extrinsic, of the inclusive spectrum of charmed particles produced i…
Recent experiments at Fermilab and CERN have observed a strong asymmetry between the hadroproduction cross sections of leading $D$ mesons, containing projectile valence quarks, and nonleading charmed mesons, without projectile valence quarks. The observed correlations of the $π^{\pm} N \to D^\pm X$ cross section with the projectile charge violates the usual assumption that heavy quark jet fragmentation factorizes. We examine the asymmetry between leading and nonleading charm production as a function of $x_f$ and $p_T^2$ assuming a two-component model combining leading-twist fusion subprocesses…
Background: A nonperturbative charm production contribution, known as intrinsic charm, has long been speculated but has never been satisfactorily proven. The SeaQuest experiment at FNAL is in an ideal kinematic region to provide evidence of $J/ψ$ production by intrinsic charm. Purpose: $J/ψ$ production in the SeaQuest kinematics is calculated with a combination of perturbative QCD and intrinsic charm to see whether the SeaQuest data can put limits on an intrinsic charm contribution. Methods: $J/ψ$ production in perturbative QCD is calculated to next-to-leading order in the cross section. Cold …
A new interpretation of intrinsic charm phenomenon based on the assumption of pentaquark $\left| u u d c\bar{c} \right>$ mixing with a proton is offered. The structure function of the $c$-quark in the pentaquark is constructed. Mixing different states is considered theoretically and using experiment data on $D$-meson production and inclusive production of the hidden charm particles.
In this work we investigate the impact of intrinsic charm on the prompt atmospheric neutrino flux. The color dipole approach to heavy quark production is generalized to include the contribution of processes initiated by charm quarks. The prompt neutrino flux is calculated assuming the presence of intrinsic charm in the wave function of the projetile hadron. The predictions are compared with previous color dipole results which were obtained taking into account only the process initiated by gluons. In addition, we estimate the atmospheric (conventional + prompt) neutrino flux and compare our pre…
Leading charm hadrons produced in hadron-nucleus interactions cannot be adequately described within the parton fusion model. Recent results on charm baryon production in $Σ^- A$ interactions at 330 GeV with the WA89 detector disagree with fusion predictions. Intrinsic heavy quark pairs in the $Σ^-(dds)$ wavefunction provide a simple mechanism for producing fast charm hadrons. We calculate leading charm baryon production from $Σ^-$, $π^-$ and $p$ projectiles in a two component model combining parton fusion with intrinsic charm. Final state $D^{-}$, $Σ_{c}^{0}$, $Ξ_{c}^{+}$, and $Λ_{c}^{+}$ $dσ/…
Using a $\overline D$ meson cloud model we calculate the squared charm radius of the nucleon . The ratio between this squared radius and the ordinary baryon squared radius is identified with the probability of ``seeing'' the intrinsic charm component of the nucleon. Our estimate is compatible with those used to successfully describe the charm production phenomenology.
Expectations for the momentum distribution of nonperturbative charm and bottom quarks in the proton are derived from a variety of models for the Fock space wave function on the light cone.
The prospects to test the hypothesis of intrinsic charm quarks in the proton are investigated. We consider how this component can be directly or indirectly probed in deep inelastic scattering at HERA and in fixed target experiments and find that an overlooked signal might be present in existing NMC data. Applying the intrinsic charm model to hadron collisions we compare the resulting charm production cross-sections with those based on standard perturbative QCD and available data. Extrapolating to higher energies we obtain predictions for charm production at the Tevatron and LHC.
Using the experimental data on pentaquarks with a hidden charm, new upper limits on the intrinsic charm in the proton are obtained, possible shapes of heavy quark distributions inside the proton are discussed.
We present a detailed investigation on the intrinsic charm content in a light meson within the 't Hooft model, namely, the two-dimensional QCD in large $N_c$ limit. The intrinsic charm parton distribution function (PDF) of a light meson, which first arises at order $N_c^{-1}$, is explicitly expressed in terms of the 't Hooft wave functions of the light meson and an infinite towers of excited charmed mesons. We also derive the functional forms from the two-dimensional counterparts of the meson cloud model (MCM) and Brodsky-Hoyer-Peterson-Sakai (BHPS) model. We then make a quantitative compariso…
We have applied the Meson Cloud Model (MCM) to calculate the charm and strange antiquark distribution in the nucleon. The resulting distribution, in the case of charm, is very similar to the intrinsic charm momentum distribution in the nucleon. This seems to corroborate the hypothesis that the intrinsic charm is in the cloud and, at the same time, explains why other calculations with the MCM involving strange quark distributions fail in reproducing the low x region data. From the intrinsic strange distribution in the nucleon we have extracted the strangeness radius of the nucleon, which is in …
We present predictions for the inclusive production of charm jets in proton-proton collisions at 7 TeV. Several CTEQ parton distribution functions (PDFs) of the CTEQ6.6M type are employed, where two of the CTEQ6.6 PDFs have intrinsic charm. At large enough jet transverse momentum and large jet rapidity, the intrinsic charm content can be tested.
The high production rate and $\langle x_{F} \rangle > 0.33$ of the doubly charmed baryons measured by the SELEX experiment is not amenable to perturbative QCD analysis. In this paper we calculate the production of the doubly heavy baryons with the double intrinsic charm Fock states whose existence is rigorously predicted by QCD. The production rate and the longitudinal momentum distribution are both reproduced. We also show that the production rates of the doubly charmed baryons and double $J/ψ$ production observed by NA3 collaboration are comparable. Recent experimental results are reviewed. …
We present a new evaluation of the far-forward neutrino plus antineutrino flux and number of events from charm hadron decays in a 400 GeV proton beam dump experiment like the Search for Hidden Particles (SHiP). Using next-to-leading order perturbative QCD and a model for intrinsic charm, we include intrinsic transverse momentum effects and other kinematic angular corrections. We compare this flux to a far-forward flux evaluated with next-to-leading order perturbative QCD, without intrinsic transverse momentum, that used the angular distribution of charm quarks rather than the neutrinos from th…
The charm quark contribution to the first moment of $g_1(x,Q^2)$ is calculated using a heavy mass expansion of the divergence of the singlet axial current. It is shown to be small.
We estimate the intrinsic charm contributions to the quark flavor and spin observables of the nucleon in the SU(4) quark meson fluctuation model. In this model, the charm or anticharm reside in the charmed mesons created by the nonperturbative quantum quark-meson fluctuations. The intrinsic charm content in the proton, $2\bar c/\sum(q+\bar q) \simeq 0.011\pm 0.008$, is almost one order of magnitude smaller than the intrinsic strange content. The intrinsic charm helicity is also small and negative, $Δc\simeq -(0.009\pm 0.006)$. The fraction of the total quark helicity carried by the charm is $|…
The predictions for the atmospheric neutrino flux at high energies strongly depend on the contribution of prompt neutrinos, which are determined by the production of charmed meson in the atmosphere at very forward rapidities. Here we estimate the related cross sections taking into account the presence of an intrinsic charm (IC) component in the proton wave function. The impact on the predictions for the prompt neutrino flux is investigated assuming different values for the probability to find the IC in the nucleon.
We present a comparative analysis of the impact of the non-perturbative intrinsic charm quark content of the proton on differential cross section of $γ+c $-jet in $ pp $ and $ p\bar{p} $ collisions, for the kinematic regions that are sensitive to this contribution. We discuss the $ Q^2 $ evolution of intrinsic quark distributions and present a code which provide these distributions as a function of $ x $ and $ Q^2 $ for any arbitrary Fock state probability. For the $ p\bar{p} $ collisions at the Tevatron, the results are compared with the recent experimental data of D0 at $\sqrt{s} =1.96$ TeV …
In the extended chiral constituent quark model, the intrinsic $c \bar{c}$ content of the nucleon is investigated. The probabilities of the quark-antiquark components in the nucleon wave functions are calculated by taking the nucleon to be admixtures of three- and five-quark components, with the relevant transitions handled {\it via} the $^{3}$P$_{0}$ mechanism. Predictions for the probability of the $c \bar{c}$ in the nucleon wave function and the charmness-nucleon sigma term are presented. Our numerical results turn out to be consistent with the predictions from various other approaches repor…
An outstanding mystery of charmonium physics is why the J/ψdecays prominently to pseudoscalar plus vector meson channels, such as J/ψ-> ρπand J/ψ-> K^*K, whereas the ψ'(2S) does not. We show that such decays of J/ψand their suppression for ψ'(2S) follow naturally from the existence of intrinsic charm |qbar q cbar c> Fock components of the light vector mesons.
Background: A nonperturbative charm production contribution, known as intrinsic charm, was predicted in the early 1980s. Recent results have provided new evidence for its existence but further confirmation is needed. Purpose: $J/ψ$ and $\bar D$ meson production are calculated with a combination of perturbative QCD and intrinsic charm to determine the best energy range to study intrinsic charm production. Methods: $J/ψ$ and $\bar D$ meson production are calculated in perturbative QCD to next-to-leading order in the cross section. Cold nuclear matter effects, including nuclear modification of th…
Using the statistical approach additional light partons have been introduced in the Intrinsic Charm model. Explicit expressions are obtained for charmed and light quark distributions. A comparison is made with standard IC model predictions. It is shown that such a modification of the IC model leads to better agreement with the $pN$ and $πN$ data on $\JP$ production at low energies and allows to avoid a contradiction to experimental data at high energy.
In this paper we review the hadroproduction mechanisms of double-charm baryons for the different experimental environments and reinterpret the SELEX and LHCb results.
We advocate charmed-hadron inclusive hadroproduction as a laboratory to probe intrinsic charm (IC) inside the colliding hadrons. Working at next-to-leading order in the general-mass variable-flavor-number scheme endowed with non-perturbative fragmentation functions recently extracted from a global fit to e^+e^- annihilation data from KEKB, CESR, and LEP1, we first assess the sensitivity of Tevatron data of D^0, D^+, and D^{*+} inclusive production to the IC parameterizations provided by Pumplin et al. We then argue that similar data from pp collisions at RHIC would have the potential to discri…
We show that the presence of intrinsic charm in the hadrons' light-cone wave functions, even at a few percent level, provides new, competitive decay mechanisms for B decays which are nominally CKM-suppressed. For example, the weak decays of the B-meson to two-body exclusive states consisting of strange plus light hadrons, such as B\toπK, are expected to be dominated by penguin contributions since the tree-level b\to s u\bar u decay is CKM suppressed. However, higher Fock states in the B wave function containing charm quark pairs can mediate the decay via a CKM-favored b\to s c\bar c tree-level…
We study $D$ - meson production at forward rapidities taking into account the non - linear effects in the QCD dynamics and the intrinsic charm component of the proton wave function. The total cross section, the rapidity distributions and the Feynman - $x$ distributions are calculated for $p p$ collisions at different center of mass energies. Our results show that, at the LHC, the intrinsic charm component changes the $D$ rapidity distributions in a region which is beyond the coverage of the LHCb detectors. At higher energies the IC component dominates the $y$ and $x_F$ distributions exactly in…
We argue that a large fraction of the proton spin comes from a contribution due to a nonperturbative intrinsic charm component of the proton. An account of this contribution removes an apparent contradiction between the data and exact Kühn-Zakharov low energy theorem. On the other hand, we show that a large intrinsic charm spin component of the proton is implied by recent CLEO data on B -> η' decays. We argue that the proton spin and B -> η' data are manifestations of the same physics with full agreement between two different estimates of the intrinsic charm component of the proton spin. Our r…
Fermilab experiment E791, measuring charmed hadron production in $π^- A$ interactions at 500 GeV with high statistics, has observed a strong asymmetry between the hadroproduction cross sections for leading $D$ mesons which contain projectile valence quarks and the nonleading charmed mesons without projectile valence quarks. Such correlations of the charge of the $D$ meson with the quantum numbers of the beam hadron explicitly contradict the factorization theorem in perturbative QCD which predicts that heavy quarks hadronize through a jet fragmentation function that is independent of the initia…
In the present paper, we present detailed discussions on the hadronic production of $Ξ_{cc}$ at a fixed target experiment at the LHC (After@LHC). The charm quarks in hadron could be either extrinsic or intrinsic. By using the BHPS model as the intrinsic charm distribution function in proton, we observe that even if by setting the proportion of finding the intrinsic charm in a proton as $A_{\rm in}=1\%$, total cross sections for the $g+c$ and $c+c$ production mechanisms shall be enhanced by nearly two times. Thus the number of $Ξ_{cc}$ events to be generated at the After@LHC can be greatly enha…
