First measurement of $\Xi_{\rm c}^0$ production in pp collisions at $\mathbf{\sqrt{s}}$ = 7 TeV

Abstract

The production of the charm-strange baryon $\Xi_{\rm c}^0$ is measured for the first time at the LHC via its semileptonic decay into e$^+\Xi^-\nu_{\rm e}$ in pp collisions at $\sqrt{s}=7$ TeV with the ALICE detector. The transverse momentum ($p_{\rm T}$) differential cross section multiplied by the branching ratio is presented in the interval 1 $<$ $p_{\rm T}$ $<$ 8 GeV/$c$ at mid-rapidity, $|y|$ $<$ 0.5. The transverse momentum dependence of the $\Xi_{\rm c}^0$ baryon production relative to the D$^0$ meson production is compared to predictions of event generators with various tunes of the hadronisation mechanism, which are found to underestimate the measured cross-section ratio.