https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-024-13641-5
Review
Towards the understanding of heavy quarks hadronization: from leptonic to heavy-ion collisions
1
School of Physics and Astronomy, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia
2
Rudolf Peierls Centre for Theoretical Physics, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
3
GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung, 64291, Darmstadt, Germany
4
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Catania and INFN-LNS, Catania, Italy
5
INFN Sezione di Padova, Padua, Italy
Received:
13
June
2024
Accepted:
22
November
2024
Published online:
10
January
2025
The formation of hadrons is a fundamental process in nature that can be investigated at particle colliders. As several recent findings demonstrate, with 
collisions as a “vacuum-like” reference at one extreme, and central nucleus–nucleus as a dense, extended size system characterized by flow and local equilibrium at the opposite extreme, different collision systems offer a lever arm that can be exploited to probe with a range of heavy-flavour hadron species the onset of various hadronization processes. In this review, we present an overview of the theoretical and experimental developments. The focus is on open-heavy-flavour measurements. The comparison with model predictions and connections among the results in electron–positron, proton–proton, proton–nucleus, nucleus–nucleus collisions are discussed. After reviewing the current state, we suggest some prospects and future developments.
© The Author(s) 2024
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