Investigating D^0 Meson Production in P-Pb Collisions at 5.02 TeV with a Multi-Phase Transport Model

We study the production of D^0 meson in p+p and p-Pb collisions using the improved AMPT model considering both coalescence and independent fragmentation of charm quarks after the Cronin broadening is included. After a detailed discussion of the improvements implemented in the AMPT model for heavy quark production, we show that the modified AMPT model can provide a good description of D^0 meson spectra in p-Pb collisions, the Q_pPb data at different centralities and R_pPb data in both mid- and forward (backward) rapidities. We also studied the effects of nuclear shadowing and parton cascade on the rapidity dependence of D^0 meson production and R_pPb . Our results indicate that using the same strength of the Cronin effect (i.e δ value) as that obtained from the mid-rapidity data leads to a considerable overestimation of the D^0 meson spectra and R_pPb data at high p_T in the backward rapidity. As a result, the δ is determined via a χ ^2 fitting of the R_pPb data across various rapidities. This work lays the foundation for a better understanding of cold-nuclear-matter (CNM) effects in relativistic heavy-ion collisions.