Intrinsic charm in the nucleon and charm production at large rapidities in collinear, hybrid and kT-factorization approaches

We discuss the role of intrinsic charm (IC) in the nucleon for forward production of c-quark (or $$ \overline{c} $$ c ¯ -antiquark) in proton-proton collisions for low and high energies. The calculations are performed in collinear-factorization approach with on-shell partons, kT-factorization approach with off-shell partons as well as in a hybrid approach using collinear charm distributions and unintegrated (transverse momentum dependent) gluon distributions. For the collinear-factorization approach we use matrix elements for both massless and massive charm quarks/antiquarks. The distributions in rapidity and transverse momentum of charm quark/antiquark are shown for a few different models of IC. Forward charm production is dominated by gc-fusion processes. The IC contribution dominates over the standard pQCD (extrinsic) gg-fusion mechanism of $$ c\overline{c} $$ c c ¯ -pair production at large rapidities or Feynman-xF. We perform similar calculations within leading-order and next-to-leading order kT-factorization approach. The kT-factorization approach leads to much larger cross sections than the LO collinear approach. At high energies and large rapidities of c-quark or $$ \overline{c} $$ c ¯ -antiquark one tests gluon distributions at extremely small x. The IC contribution has important consequences for high-energy neutrino production in the Ice-Cube experiment and can be, to some extent, tested at the LHC by the SHIP and FASER experiments by studies of the ντ neutrino production.

First observation of a tau neutrino charged current interaction with charm production in the OPERA experiment

An event topology with two secondary vertices compatible with the decay of short-lived particles was found in the analysis of neutrino interactions in the OPERA target. The observed topology is compatible with tau neutrino charged current (CC) interactions with charm production and neutrino neutral current (NC) interactions with $$c\overline{c}$$cc¯ pair production. However, other processes can mimic this topology. A dedicated analysis was implemented to identify the underlying process. A Monte Carlo simulation was developed and complementary procedures were introduced in the kinematic reconstruction. A multivariate analysis technique was used to achieve an optimal separation of signal from background. Most likely, this event is a $$\nu _{\tau }$$ντ CC interaction with charm production, the tau and charm particle decaying into 1 prong and 2 prongs, respectively. The significance of this observation is evaluated.