Multiplicity-dependent production of heavy mesons with strangeness in small systems at LHCb

Abstract

The phenomenon of strangeness enhancement, originally proposed as a signature of quark-gluon plasma formation, has received considerable new interest following recent observations in small collision systems. LHCb is uniquely well suited to study such effects in the heavy quark sector, down to very low transverse momentum. Here we will present new LHCb results on the production rates of B0s relative to B0 mesons versus multiplicity in pp collisions. Potential implications for the hadronization mechanism of heavy quarks and our understanding of the factorization of fragmentation functions will be discussed.