Probing Local Charm Hadronization Dynamics with Hadron-Anchored Energy Correlators

Abstract

We introduce the hadron-anchored energy correlator (HAEC), a jet-restricted realization of the fragmentation energy correlator and the semi-inclusive energy correlator frameworks, and apply it to heavy-flavor-tagged jets in hadron collisions. Using \textsc{Pythia}~8 simulations of ${\rm D}^0$- and $Λ_c^+$-tagged jets, we find a pronounced, localized suppression of energy flow around the $Λ_c^+$ relative to the ${\rm D}^0$, followed by a sharp transition scaling as $θ_0\propto1/p_{\rm T}^{\rm jet}$ with little tune dependence. The conventional jet-axis radial profile shows qualitatively different color-reconnection dependence, suggesting reduced sensitivity of HAEC to jet-axis effects. A beauty-sector study can distinguish a heavy-quark-mass origin from a local fragmentation-vertex origin.