The role of the underlying event in the enhancement in high-energy pp collisions

Abstract

We study the enhanced production of charmed baryons relative to charmed mesons in proton–proton collisions at LHC energies. Utilizing PYTHIA 8 simulations with enhanced color-reconnection we propose methods based on the comparative use of several event-activity classifiers to identify the source of the charmed-baryon enhancement. We conclude that in this enhanced color-reconnection scenario the excess production is primarily linked to the underlying event activity and not to the production of high-momentum jets.