Measurement of the production cross section of prompt ${\Xi }_{c}^{0}$ baryons at midrapidity in pp collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 5.02 TeV

The transverse momentum (p T) differential cross section of the charm-strange baryon ${\Xi }_{c}^{0}$ is measured at midrapidity (|y| < 0.5) via its semileptonic decay into e+Ξ − ν e in pp collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 5.02 TeV with the ALICE detector at the LHC. The ratio of the p T-differential ${\Xi }_{c}^{0}$ -baryon and D0-meson production cross sections is also reported. The measurements are compared with simulations with different tunes of the PYTHIA 8 event generator, with predictions from a statistical hadronisation model (SHM) with a largely augmented set of charm-baryon states beyond the current lists of the Particle Data Group, and with models including hadronisation via quark coalescence. The p T-integrated cross section of prompt ${\Xi }_{c}^{0}$ -baryon production at midrapidity is also reported, which is used to calculate the baryon-to-meson ratio ${\Xi }_{c}^{0}$ /D0 = 0.20 ± 0.04 ${\left(\text{stat}.\right)}_{-0.07}^{+0.08}$ (syst.). These results provide an additional indication of a modification of the charm fragmentation from e+e − and e − p collisions to pp collisions.