Open charm via D mesons using the ALICE detector at CERN-LHC

Abstract

Charm and bottom quarks have been proposed as probes to study hot quark matter produced in high-energy heavy-ion collisions. The detailed understanding of the charm cross-section in proton-proton collisions as well as the production mechanisms is of considerable interest as QCD test tool and as reference calibration for heavy-ion studies. Measurements of D mesons yield in minimum bias proton-proton collisions can be used to extract the charm cross-section. In this contribution we present latest results on performance studies of the reconstruction of D0, D* and D+ mesons in proton-proton collisions at √s = 7 TeV using the ALICE central detector. The D0 meson is reconstructed through the hadronic channel D0 → K-π+ while the D* meson is reconstructed through the hadronic decay sequence D*+ → D0π+ and D0 → K-π+ (and their charge conjugate channels). The D+ is reconstructed through the channel D+ → K-π+ π+ . A preliminary discussion on possible sources of systematic is done.