Open charm production in Double Parton Scattering processes in the forward kinematics

Abstract

We calculate the rate of double open charm production in the forward kinematics studied recently in the LHCb experiment. We find that the mean field approximation for the double parton GPD (Generalized parton distributions), which neglects parton - parton correlations, underestimates the rate by a factor of two. The enhancement due to the perturbative QCD correlation \12 mechanism which explains the rate of double parton interactions at the central rapidities is found to explain 60 $\div$ 80 \% of the discrepancy. We argue that the nonperturbative fluctuations leading to non-factorized (correlated) contributions to the initial conditions for the DGLAP collinear evolution of the double parton GPD play an important role in this kinematics. Combined, the two correlation mechanisms provide a good description of the rate of double charm production reported by the LHCb. We also give predictions for the variation of the \effs (i.e. the ratio of double and square of single inclusive rates) in the discussed kinematics as a function of $p_t$. The account for two correlation mechanisms strongly reduces sensitivity of the results to the starting point of the QCD evolution.