Open and hidden charm production in nucleus-nucleus collisions is considered as a key probe of Quark Gluon Plasma (QGP) formation. In the search of specific QGP effects, proton-nucleus collisions are used as the reference as they account for the corresponding Cold Nuclear Matter (CNM) effects. The LHCb experiment, thanks to its System for Measuring Overlap with Gas (SMOG) can be operated in a fixed target mode with the LHC beams, at an intermediate center-of-mass energy between nominal SPS and RHIC energies. In 2015, for the first time, reactions of incident LHC proton beams on noble gas targets have been recorded by the LHCb experiment at a center-of-mass energy of 110 GeV and within the center-of-mass rapidity range −2.77<y⁎<−0.2. The first high resolution measurements on open and hidden charm production obtained under these conditions are presented.
Read full abstract