Charm quark hadronization into baryons and its dependence on the collision system in ALICE.

Charm-baryon production measurements in proton–proton (pp) collisions at the LHC provide valuable input for understanding charm-quark hadronization mechanism and testing perturbative quantum chromodynamics (QCD)-based calculations. Recent results show baryon-to-meson ratios significantly higher than those measured in e$^{+}$e$^{-}$ collisions, suggesting a collision system dependence of the fragmentation functions parametrized from e$^{+}$e$^{-}$ and e$^{-}$p measurements, and challenging predictions based on the factorization approach. Several QCD-inspired models (e.g., Catania, POWLANG, QCM) and Monte Carlo event generators (e.g., PYTHIA 8, EPOS 4) attempt to describe charm-quark hadronization, but most fail to simultaneously reproduce the yields of both strange and non-strange charm baryons. The hadronization process can also be studied in larger systems, such as Pb-Pb, revealing nuclear matter effects.

Precise and differential measurements of charm-baryon production, particularly of those containing strange quarks such as the $\Omega_{\mathrm{c}}^0$, are essential to constrain models and improve our understanding of hadronization mechanisms in small systems. The multiplicity dependence of $\Omega_{\mathrm{c}}^0$ production is being explored as part of ongoing studies, aiming to better understand the interplay between coalescence and fragmentation in high-multiplicity pp collisions. In this contribution the measurement prospects using the data collected by the ALICE experiment during the LHC Run 3 are discussed.