Comunicazione
Charmed baryon-to-meson ratio $vs.$ the event charged-particle multiplicity.
Dello Stritto L.
Recent measurements of charm-baryon production at midrapidity in proton-proton and proton-nucleus collisions show a significantly higher baryon-over-meson production yield ratios than in $e^+e^-$ collisions, suggesting that the charm fragmentation is not universal across different collision systems. Thus, measurements of charm-baryon production are crucial to study the charm-quark hadronisation in proton-proton collisions and its difference with respect to in-vacuum fragmentation. Moreover, differential studies of heavy-flavour production as a function of the event charged-particle multiplicity provide insights into the role of multi-parton interactions in heavy-quark production. They can also address the relevance of colour-reconnection mechanisms in heavy-quark hadronization in pp, p-Pb, and Pb-Pb. The ALICE detector is well suited to detect charm baryons down to low $p_T$ thanks to its excellent tracking, vertexing and particle identification capabilities. In this communication, the new results on $\Lambda_c^+$ baryon production and charmed baryon-to-meson ratios $vs.$ the event charged-particle multiplicity measured by the ALICE Collaboration in pp, p-Pb, and Pb-Pb collisions will be presented.