Triple-charmed Hadron from Coalescence in Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collisions

Abstract

We investigate the production of the $\Omega_{ccc}$ baryon in relativistic heavy-ion collisions. Unlike proton-proton collisions, nuclear collisions produce both deconfined matter and abundant charm quark pairs, which can coalesce to form the $\Omega_{ccc}$ baryon, thereby significantly enhancing its production. We employ the Langevin model and the Instantaneous Coalescence Model (LICM), coupled with hydrodynamic simulations, to study charm quark diffusion and coalescence into the $\Omega_{ccc}$ baryon in expanding QCD matter. The production of the $\Omega_{ccc}$ is governed by the charm quark densities and the in-medium wavefunctions of the $\Omega_{ccc}$, which determines the coalescence probability for the three charm quarks. We calculate the $\Omega_{ccc}$ production with realistic charm diffusions and different in-medium wave functions of $\Omega_{ccc}$ baryon. We find that the production of the $\Omega_{ccc}$ baryon is sensitive to these factors, which aids in understanding its properties in the hot QCD medium.