Speaker
Description
The production mechanism of light (anti)nuclei in hadronic collisions is a central topic in high-energy nuclear physics. Experimental measurements have been described using either the statistical hadronisation model or the coalescence approach, in which nuclei form from baryons close in phase space at kinetic freeze-out. Recent ALICE measurements provide strong evidence that coalescence-driven mechanisms dominate light-nuclei formation in small colliding systems at LHC energies. These results shift the focus toward a quantitative understanding of the underlying coalescence dynamics and their dependence on the local phase-space structure of baryons. New observables are essential to constrain the microscopic properties of the nucleon emission phase space.
Angular correlations between particle pairs provide a sensitive probe of particle production mechanisms. In proton-proton collisions, the ALICE Collaboration observed an unexpected near-side anticorrelation for baryon-baryon pairs that is not reproduced by Monte Carlo event generators.
In this contribution, light nuclei production is investigated for the first time via nuclei-proton angular correlations. New measurements of deuteron-proton correlations in Run 3 pp collisions are presented and compared to state-of-the-art simulations, providing novel constraints on the microscopic mechanisms underlying light (anti)nuclei formation.
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