The role of the underlying event in the Λc+ enhancement in high-energy pp collisions

Abstract We study the enhanced production of charmed baryons relative to charmed mesons in proton–proton collisions at LHC energies. Utilizing PYTHIA 8 simulations with enhanced color-reconnection we propose methods based on the comparative use of several event-activity classifiers to identify the source of the charmed-baryon enhancement. We conclude that in this enhanced color-reconnection scenario the excess <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline" overflow="scroll"> <mml:msubsup> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi mathvariant="normal">Λ</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mtext>c</mml:mtext> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mo>+</mml:mo> </mml:mrow> </mml:msubsup> </mml:math> production is primarily linked to the underlying event activity and not to the production of high-momentum jets.