We find signals of quark combination at hadronization from the experimental data of $p_T$ spectra of hadrons at midrapidity in $pp$ collisions at $\sqrt{s}=200\mathrm{GeV}$. The first is the constituent quark number scaling property for $p_T$ spectra of ${\mathrm{\Omega }}^{-}$ and $\varphi$ and that for $p_T$ spectra of $p$ and ${\rho }^0$. The second is that $p_T$ spectra of $\mathrm{\Lambda }$, ${\mathrm{\Xi }}^{-}$, and $K^{*0}$ can be self-consistently described using the spectrum of strange quarks from $\varphi$ data and that of up/down quarks from $p$ data in the equal-velocity combination mechanism. The third is that experimental data for $p_T$ spectrum of $D^{*+}$ are also well described by the spectrum of up/down quarks from $p$ data and a spectrum of charm quarks which is consistent with theoretical calculations of the fixed-order next-to-leading-logarithmic approach. These results indicate a similarity between hadron production in $pp$ collisions at $\sqrt{s}=200\mathrm{GeV}$ and that at LHC energies. We predict $p_T$ spectra of single-charm hadrons and their spectrum ratios. We suggest systematic measurements in $pp$ collisions at $\sqrt{s}=200\mathrm{GeV}$ in the future so as to better understand the property of the small parton system created in $pp$ collisions at different collision energies.

• Received 6 October 2021
• Accepted 8 April 2022

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.105.074027

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Published by the American Physical Society