Speaker
Description
In relativistic heavy-ion collisions at the LHC, extreme conditions are created where the temperature exceeds the QCD phase transition threshold ($T_{\mathrm{ch}} \sim 156$ MeV), leading to the formation of the quark--gluon plasma (QGP). In this phase, lattice QCD predicts a partial restoration of chiral symmetry, which can be investigated through parity-partner resonances with identical quantum numbers except for parity, such as the K$^{*}(892)^{0}$ and K$_{1}(1270)$. In vacuum, these particles exhibit different masses, widths, and production yields. However, near chiral symmetry restoration, these differences are expected to diminish, potentially leading to mass degeneracy and an enhanced K$_{1}$/K$^{*}$ yield ratio beyond statistical hadronization model predictions.
Equipped with high-precision tracking and particle identification, the ALICE detector is particularly well suited for these measurements. Using the large data sample from LHC Run 3, this contribution presents the first results on K$^{*}(892)^{0}$ production in Pb--Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}} = 5.36$ TeV. Furthermore, plans for studying the K$_{1}(1270)$ resonance with ALICE as a probe of chiral symmetry restoration in the early stages of the collision will be discussed. The measurement will be performed via its dominant decay channel, K$_{1}(1270) \to \mathrm{K}^{*}(892)^{0} \pi$, with the K$^{*}$ reconstructed through K$\pi$ pairs.
| Track | Heavy Ions |
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