Production and polarization of ${\mathrm{\Lambda }}_c^{+}$ and the charm of the proton

We propose a two-component model involving the parton fusion mechanism and recombination of a $ud$ valence diquark with a sea $c$-quark of the incident proton to describe ${\mathrm{\Lambda }}_c^{+}$ inclusive production in $pp$ collisions. We also study the polarization of the produced ${\mathrm{\Lambda }}_c^{+}$ in the framework of the Thomas Precession Model for polarization. We show that a measurement of the ${\mathrm{\Lambda }}_c$ polarization is a sensitive test of its production mechanism. In particular the intrinsic charm model predicts a positive polarization for the ${\mathrm{\Lambda }}_c$ within the framework of the Thomas Precession Model, while according to the model presented here the ${\mathrm{\Lambda }}_c$ polarization should be negative. The measurement of the ${\mathrm{\Lambda }}_c$ polarization provides a close examination of intrinsic charm Fock states in the proton and give interesting information about the hadroproduction of charm.