https://doi.org/10.1140/epja/s10050-026-01787-7
Regular Article - Theoretical Physics
Heavy quark potential and thermal charm production in heavy-ion collisions
1
GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung GmbH, Planckstrasse 1, 64291, Darmstadt, Germany
2
Helmholtz Research Academy Hessen for FAIR (HFHF), GSI Helmholtz Center for Heavy Ion Research, Campus Frankfurt, 60438, Frankfurt, Germany
3
Institut für Theoretische Physik, Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität, Max-von-Laue-Str. 1, 60438, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
a
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Received:
23
April
2025
Accepted:
6
January
2026
Published online:
19
January
2026
Abstract
The effective mass of heavy quark in QGP is related to the heavy quark potential at a large distance. In this study we test different heavy quark potentials, namely, the screened potential such as the free energy and the internal energy of the heavy quark pair in QGP, and the unscreened potential, which was recently proposed by the HotQCD Collaboration, through the thermal production of charm quarks in heavy-ion collisions at the LHC. We find that the free energy potential overestimates charm production in heavy-ion collisions at the LHC, while the unscreened potential produces results closest to the experimental data from the ALICE Collaboration among the three potentials.
Communicated by Ralf Rapp.
© The Author(s) 2026
modified publication 2026
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