Abstract
The transverse momentum ( $$p_{\textrm{T}}$$ p T ) differential production cross section of the promptly produced charm-strange baryon $$\mathrm {\Xi _{c}^{0}}$$ Ξ c 0 (and its charge conjugate $$\overline{\mathrm {\Xi _{c}^{0}}}$$ Ξ c 0 ¯ ) is measured at midrapidity via its hadronic decay into $$\mathrm{\pi ^{+}}\Xi ^{-}$$ π + Ξ - in p–Pb collisions at a centre-of-mass energy per nucleon–nucleon collision $$\sqrt{s_{\textrm{NN}}}~=~5.02$$ s NN = 5.02 TeV with the ALICE detector at the LHC. The $$\mathrm {\Xi _{c}^{0}}$$ Ξ c 0 nuclear modification factor ( $$R_{\textrm{pPb}}$$ R pPb ), calculated from the cross sections in pp and p–Pb collisions, is presented and compared with the $$R_{\textrm{pPb}}$$ R pPb of $$\mathrm {\Lambda _{c}^{+}}$$ Λ c + baryons. The ratios between the $$p_{\textrm{T}}$$ p T -differential production cross section of $$\mathrm {\Xi _{c}^{0}}$$ Ξ c 0 baryons and those of $$\mathrm {D^0}$$ D 0 mesons and $$\mathrm {\Lambda _{c}^{+}}$$ Λ c + baryons are also reported and compared with results at forward and backward rapidity from the LHCb Collaboration. The measurements of the production cross section of prompt $$\Xi ^0_\textrm{c}$$ Ξ c 0 baryons are compared with a model based on perturbative QCD calculations of charm-quark production cross sections, which includes only cold nuclear matter effects in p–Pb collisions, and underestimates the measurement by a factor of about 50. This discrepancy is reduced when the data is compared with a model that includes string formation beyond leading-colour approximation or in which hadronisation is implemented via quark coalescence. The $$p_{\textrm{T}}$$ p T -integrated cross section of prompt $$\Xi ^0_\textrm{c}$$ Ξ c 0 -baryon production at midrapidity extrapolated down to $$p_{\textrm{T}}$$ p