Production asymmetry of $D$ and ${\bar D}$ mesons in the LHCb fixed target experiment and intrinsic charm in the nucleon

Abstract

We discuss production of $D^0$ and ${\bar D}^0$ mesons in proton-nucleus collisions in fixed target experiments. We include gluon-gluon fusion, intrinsic charm and perturbative recombination. We compare rapidity and transverse momentum distributions obtained within our approach with recent fixed target LHCb experimental data. All the mechanisms seem important for inclusive production of $D^0 + {\bar D}^0$ mesons. The recombination mechanism seems crucial to understand asymmetry in production of $D^0$ and ${\bar D}^0$ mesons.