Measurement of meson production fraction ratios in proton-proton collisions at using open-charm and charmonium decays
Production fraction ratios of , , and mesons are measured in proton-proton collisions at using a special dataset recorded in 2018 with high-rate triggers designed to collect an unbiased sample of hadrons with the CMS experiment at the LHC. These data allow the study of the open-charm decays of mesons ( ) where the meson decays into fully hadronic final states. By utilizing known branching fractions and precise theoretical calculations, production fraction ratios as functions of meson transverse momentum and rapidity ( ) are measured using open-charm decays in the kinematic range of and . In addition, the same dataset is used to measure the relative production fraction ratios with the charmonium decay channels [ with indicating a , , or meson] where the meson decays into a pair of muons. The open-charm results are used to normalize the relative production fraction ratios obtained from the charmonium samples. Measurements of the ratios of branching fractions of meson decays to charmonium and open-charm final states are also reported, which will improve the world-average values of these ratios. Finally, we test isospin invariance in meson production in proton-proton collisions and observe that it holds within the experimental precision.