Fabricio Jiménez
Charm and bottom production at particle colliders

Abstract

High energy particle collisions involve complex physics, beyond analytical control. Instead, Monte Carlo event generators like Pythia have been used to simulate particle collisions since decades. A study of the production of heavy quarks (namely, charm and bottom) is presented for two different scenarios: lepton (e+e− ) and hadron (pp) collisions. Electron- positron collisions at the Z 0 resonance are simulated and the result used to study the secondary bb production rate (g ) and the D∗± meson energy spectrum. Results are com- bbpared with experimental data. Three proposed modifications to the Pythia algorithm regarding the g → QQ branching are also tested. For the g , the default and one of the bbalternatives fit the experimental measurement. The study is inconclusive for the D∗± spec-trum. Proton-proton collisions at typical LHC energies are also simulated; thecorrelations between produced B meson pairs are studied through the azimuthal angular separation, the relative rapidities and the R distance, according to the production mechanisms. The default and the alternative options are also compared in the hadronic case.

LU TP 14-15