Heavy-flavour production in fixed-target mode

Abstract

LHCb is the only experiment that can operate in fixed-target mode at the LHC. In this particular setup, one of the LHC TeV-energy beams of protons or lead ions interacts with a gaseous target to reach the highest center-of-mass energies in a fixed-target experiment up-to-date. This provides unique conditions to study charm production. In this report, recent LHCb results from its heavy-flavour program in fixed-target collisions are reported. These results include production measurements of open charm (𝐷 0 , 𝐷 0 ) and hidden charm (𝐽/𝜓, 𝜓(2𝑆)) in 𝑝Ne and PbNe collisions at √𝑠 NN = 68.5 GeV collected during LHC Run 2. These results provide data to study nuclear structure and the charm hadronisation mechanism in a previously unexplored kinematic phase space, as well as input for the understanding of cold nuclear matter and the formation of a hot and thermalised medium. Finally, recent progress in the commissioning of the upgraded LHCb detector and the new gas injection system, SMOG2, is reported.