arXiv:hep-ph/0205149·v1·High Energy Physics — Phenomenology
The Leading Particle Effect from Heavy-Quark Recombination
Eric Braaten🇺🇸 · Yu Jia (Ohio State U.)🇺🇸 · Thomas Mehen (Duke U.)🇺🇸
Abstract
The leading particle effect in charm hadroproduction is an enhancement of the cross section for a charmed hadron D in the forward direction of the beam when the beam hadron has a valence parton in common with the D. The large D+/D- asymmetry observed by the E791 experiment is an example of this phenomenon. We show that the heavy-quark recombination mechanism provides an economical explanation for this effect. In particular, the D+/D- asymmetry can be fit reasonably well using a single parameter whose value is consistent with a recent determination from charm photoproduction.
Comments: Revtex file, 4 pages, 3 figures