Investigating charm production and fragmentation via azimuthal correlations of prompt D mesons with charged particles in pp collisions at $$\mathbf {\sqrt{ s} = 13}$$ TeV

• Published in: The European physical journal. C, Particles and fields Particles and fields, 2022-04, Vol.82 (4), Article 335
• Main Authors: Acharya, S., Adamová, D., Adler, A., Adolfsson, J., Aglieri Rinella, G., Agnello, M., Agrawal, N., Ahammed, Z., Ahmad, S., Ahn, S. U., Ahuja, I., Akbar, Z., Akindinov, A., Al-Turany, M., Alam, S. N., Aleksandrov, D., Alessandro, B., Alfanda, H. M., Alfaro Molina, R., Ali, B., Ali, Y., Alici, A., Alizadehvandchali, N., Alkin, A., Alme, J., Alt, T., Altenkamper, L., Altsybeev, I., Anaam, M. N., Andrei, C., Andreou, D., Andronic, A., Angeletti, M., Anguelov, V., Antinori, F., Antonioli, P., Anuj, C., Apadula, N., Aphecetche, L., Appelshäuser, H., Arcelli, S., Arnaldi, R., Arsene, I. C., Arslandok, M., Augustinus, A., Averbeck, R., Aziz, S., Azmi, M. D., Badalà, A., Baek, Y. W., Bai, X., Bailhache, R., Bailung, Y., Bala, R., Balbino, A., Baldisseri, A., Balis, B., Banerjee, D., Barbera, R., Barioglio, L., Barlou, M., Barnaföldi, G. G., Barnby, L. S., Barret, V., Bartels, C., Barth, K., Bartsch, E., Baruffaldi, F., Bastid, N., Basu, S., Batigne, G., Batyunya, B., Bauri, D., Bazo Alba, J. L., Bearden, I. G., Beattie, C., Belikov, I., Bell Hechavarria, A. D. C., Bellini, F., Bellwied, R., Belokurova, S., Belyaev, V., Bencedi, G., Beole, S., Bercuci, A., Berdnikov, Y., Berdnikova, A., Bergmann, L., Besoiu, M. G., Betev, L., Bhaduri, P. P., Bhasin, A., Bhat, I. R., Bhat, M. A., Bhattacharjee, B., Bhattacharya, P., Bianchi, L., Bianchi, N., Bielčík, J., Bielčíková, J.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS
• ISSN: 1434-6052; 1434-6052
• DOI: 10.1140/epjc/s10052-022-10267-3

Angular correlations of heavy-flavour and charged particles in high-energy proton–proton collisions are sensitive to the production mechanisms of heavy quarks and to their fragmentation as well as hadronisation processes. The measurement of the azimuthal-correlation function of prompt D mesons with charged particles in proton–proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of $$\sqrt{s} = 13$$ s = 13  TeV with the ALICE detector is reported, considering $$\mathrm D^{0} $$ D 0 , $$\mathrm D^{+} $$ D + , and $$\mathrm D^{*+} $$ D ∗ + mesons in the transverse-momentum interval $$3< p_{\mathrm{T}} < 36$$ 3 < p T < 36  GeV/ $$c$$ c at midrapidity ( $$|y| < 0.5$$ | y | < 0.5 ), and charged particles with $$p_{\mathrm{T}} > 0.3$$ p T > 0.3  GeV/ $$c$$ c and pseudorapidity $$|\eta | < 0.8$$ | η | < 0.8 . This measurement has an improved precision and provides an extended transverse-momentum coverage compared to previous ALICE measurements at lower energies. The study is also performed as a function of the charged-particle multiplicity, showing no modifications of the correlation function with multiplicity within uncertainties. The properties and the transverse-momentum evolution of the near- and away-side correlation peaks are studied and compared with predictions from various Monte Carlo event generators. Among those considered, PYTHIA8 and POWHEG+PYTHIA8 provide the best description of the measured observables. The obtained results can provide guidance on tuning the generators.