$B_c (B_c^*)$ meson production via the proton-nucleus and the nucleus-nucleus collision modes at the colliders RHIC and LHC

In the paper, we make a comprehensive study of the hadroproduction of the B-c(B-c*) meson via the gluongluon fusion mechanism at the RHIC and LHC colliders. Total and differential cross sections via the proton-nucleus (p-N) and nucleus-nucleus (N-N) collision modes have been discussed under various collision energies. To compare with those via the proton-proton collision mode at the LHC, we observe that a sizable number of B-c (B-c*)-meson events can also be produced via the p-N and N-N collision modes at the RHIC and LHC. If assuming the spin-triplet B-c* meson directly decays to the spin-singlet B-c meson with 100% probability, 1.2 x 10(5) and 4.7 x 10(5) B-c-meson events can be produced via the p-Au and Au-Au collision modes at the RHIC in one operation year, and 5.8 x 10(6) and 4.6 x 10(6) B-c-meson events can be produced via the p-Pb and Pb-Pb collision modes at the LHC in one operation year.