Abstract

We report on the first measurement of the charmed baryon Lambda(+/-)(c) production at midrapidity (vertical bar y vertical bar 1) in Au + Au collisions root s(NN) = 200 GeV collected by the STAR experiment at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider. The A(c)/D-0 [denoting (Lambda(+)(c) + Lambda(-)(c))/(D-0 + (D) over bar (0))] yield ratio is measured to be 1.08 +/- 0.16 (stat) 0.26 (sys) in the 0%-20% most central Au + Au collisions for the transverse momentum (p(T)) range 3 p(T) 6 GeV/c. This is significantly larger than the PYTHIA model calculations for p + p collisions. The measured A(c)/D-0 ratio, as a function of p(T) and collision centrality, is comparable to the baryon-to-meson ratios for light and strange hadrons in Au + Au collisions. Model calculations including coalescence hadronization for charmed baryon and meson formation reproduce the features of our measured Lambda(c)/D-0 ratio.