Production of light (anti)nuclei in pp collisions at $$\sqrt{s} = 5.02$$ TeV

Abstract

The study of the production of nuclei and antinuclei in pp collisions has proven to be a powerful tool to investigate the formation mechanism of loosely bound states in high-energy hadronic collisions. In this paper, the production of protons, deuterons and $$^{3}\mathrm {He}$$ 3 He and their charge conjugates at midrapidity is studied as a function of the charged-particle multiplicity in inelastic pp collisions at $$\sqrt{s}=5.02$$ s = 5.02 TeV using the ALICE detector. Within the uncertainties, the yields of nuclei in pp collisions at $$\sqrt{s}=5.02$$ s = 5.02 TeV are compatible with those in pp collisions at different energies and to those in p–Pb collisions when compared at similar multiplicities. The measurements are compared with the expectations of coalescence and Statistical Hadronisation Models. The results suggest a common formation mechanism behind the production of light nuclei in hadronic interactions and confirm that they do not depend on the collision energy but on the number of produced particles.

Deuteron yields from LHC: Continuum correlations and in-medium effects

“…The question of freeze-out probes in heavy-ion collisions has been discussed also in context with strange hadron resonances [86]. Suppression of strange particle resonance production at LHC energies has been discussed recently [87][88][89][90][91]. Short-lived resonances, scattering and rescattering processes may help to achieve a better description of the expanding fireball after freeze-out.…”

Production of light antinuclei in $pp$ collisions by dynamical coalescence and their fluxes in cosmic rays near earth

“…Measurements are usually performed in pA or AA reactions [43][44][45][46][47]. Data in pp collisions are scarce and only available at TeV energies [17,48,49]. We thus do not have the chance to test our model calculation in lower collision energies below TeV.…”