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Recent measurements of charm-baryon production in hadronic collisions have questioned the universality of charm-quark fragmentation across different collision systems. In this work the fragmentation of charm quarks into charm baryons is probed, by presenting the first measurement of the longitudinal jet momentum fraction carried by${\mathrm{\Lambda }}_c^{+}$baryons,$z_{\parallel }^{\mathrm{ch}}$, in hadronic collisions. The results are obtained in proton-proton ($pp$) collisions at$\sqrt{s}=13\mathrm{TeV}$at the LHC, with${\mathrm{\Lambda }}_c^{+}$baryons and charged (track-based) jets reconstructed in the transverse momentum intervals of$3\le p_T^{{\mathrm{\Lambda }}_c^{+}}<15\mathrm{GeV}/c$and$7\le p_T^{\text{jet ch}}<15\mathrm{GeV}/c$, respectively. The$z_{\parallel }^{\mathrm{ch}}$distribution is compared to a measurement of${\mathrm{D}}^0$-tagged charged jets in$pp$collisions as well as to 8 simulations. The data hints that the fragmentation of charm quarks into charm baryons is softer with respect to charm mesons, in the measured kinematic interval, as predicted by hadronization models which include color correlations beyond leading-color in the string formation.

The production of the$\psi (2S)$charmonium state was measured with ALICE in Pb-Pb collisions at$\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}=5.02\mathrm{TeV}$, in the dimuon decay channel. A significant signal was observed for the first time at LHC energies down to zero transverse momentum, at forward rapidity ($2.5<y<4$). The measurement of the ratio of the inclusive production cross sections of the$\psi (2S)$and$\mathrm{J}/\psi$resonances is reported as a function of the centrality of the collisions and of transverse momentum, in the region$p_T<12\mathrm{GeV}/c$. The results are compared with the corresponding measurements in$pp$collisions, by forming the double ratio$[{\sigma }^{\psi (2S)}/{\sigma }^{J/\psi }{]}_{\mathrm{Pb}\text{−}\mathrm{Pb}}/[{\sigma }^{\psi (2S)}/{\sigma }^{J/\psi }{]}_{pp}$. It is found that in Pb-Pb collisions the$\psi (2S)$is suppressed by a factor of$\sim 2$with respect to the$J/\psi$. The$\psi (2S)$nuclear modification factor$R_{\mathrm{AA}}$was also obtained as a function of both centrality and$p_T$. The results show that the$\psi (2S)$resonance yield is strongly suppressed in Pb-Pb collisions, by a factor of up to$\sim 3$with respect to$pp$. Comparisons of cross section ratios with previous Super Proton Synchrotron findings by the NA50 experiment and of$R_{\mathrm{AA}}$with higher-$p_T$results at LHC energy are also reported. These results and the corresponding comparisons with calculations of transport and statistical models address questions on the presence and properties of charmonium states in the quark-gluon plasma formed in nuclear collisions at the LHC.

The interactions of kaons (K) and antikaons ($$\mathrm {\overline{K}}$$$\overline{K}$) with few nucleons (N) were studied so far using kaonic atom data and measurements of kaon production and interaction yields in nuclei. Some details of the three-body KNN and$$\mathrm {\overline{K}}$$$\overline{K}$NN dynamics are still not well understood, mainly due to the overlap with multi-nucleon interactions in nuclei. An alternative method to probe the dynamics of three-body systems with kaons is to study the final state interaction within triplet of particles emitted in pp collisions at the Large Hadron Collider, which are free from effects due to the presence of bound nucleons. This Letter reports the first femtoscopic study of p–p–K$$^+$$${}^{+}$and p–p–K$$^-$$${}^{-}$correlations measured in high-multiplicity pp collisions at$$\sqrt{s}$$$\sqrt{s}$= 13 TeV by the ALICE Collaboration. The analysis shows that the measured p–p–K$$^+$$${}^{+}$and p–p–K$$^-$$${}^{-}$correlation functions can be interpreted in terms of pairwise interactions in the triplets, indicating that the dynamics of such systems is dominated by the two-body interactions without significant contributions from three-body effects or bound states.

The fractions of non-prompt (i.e. originating from beauty-hadron decays) D⁰and D⁺mesons with respect to the inclusive yield are measured as a function of the charged-particle multiplicity in proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of$$ \sqrt{s} $$$\sqrt{s}$= 13 TeV with the ALICE detector at the LHC. The results are reported in intervals of transverse momentum (p_T) and integrated in the range 1< p_T<24 GeV/c. The fraction of non-prompt D⁰and D⁺mesons is found to increase slightly as a function ofp_Tin all the measured multiplicity intervals, while no significant dependence on the charged-particle multiplicity is observed. In order to investigate the production and hadronisation mechanisms of charm and beauty quarks, the results are compared to PYTHIA 8 as well as EPOS 3 and EPOS 4 Monte Carlo simulations, and to calculations based on the colour glass condensate including three-pomeron fusion.