We report on the first measurement of charm-strange meson $D_s^{\pm }$ production at midrapidity in $\mathrm{Au}+\mathrm{Au}$ collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}=200\mathrm{GeV}$ from the STAR experiment. The yield ratio between strange ($D_s^{\pm }$) and nonstrange ($D^0$) open-charm mesons is presented and compared to model calculations. A significant enhancement, relative to a pythia simulation of $p+p$ collisions, is observed in the $D_s^{\pm }/D^0$ yield ratio in $\mathrm{Au}+\mathrm{Au}$ collisions over a large range of collision centralities. Model calculations incorporating abundant strange-quark production in the quark-gluon plasma and coalescence hadronization qualitatively reproduce the data. The transverse-momentum integrated yield ratio of $D_s^{\pm }/D^0$ at midrapidity is consistent with a prediction from a statistical hadronization model with the parameters constrained by the yields of light and strange hadrons measured at the same collision energy. These results suggest that the coalescence of charm quarks with strange quarks in the quark-gluon plasma plays an important role in $D_s^{\pm }$-meson production in heavy-ion collisions.

• Received 28 January 2021
• Revised 12 May 2021
• Accepted 21 July 2021

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.127.092301

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Published by the American Physical Society