Speaker
Stefania Bufalino
(Universita e INFN (IT))
Description
One of the striking features of particle production in Pb-Pb collisions at high energies is the near equal
abundance of matter and antimatter in the central rapidity region.
The comparison of the production of light nuclei, antinuclei, hypernuclei and anti--hypernuclei at high energies
offers a unique opportunity to understand if the mechanism of particle production in ultra-relativistic heavy
ion collisions can be described by a coalescence or a thermal model.
An upgrade of the ALICE apparatus is scheduled for the second long LHC
shutdown (LS2) in 2019 and it will give access to otherwise unreachable processes.
The new Inner Tracking System (ITS), with largely enhanced tracking precision and efficiency, and the improved readout capability of most of the ALICE detectors will be crucial for the measurement of light (anti)hypernuclei.
The identification of light nuclei is also important for the reconstruction of the weak decays of hypernuclei in which a nucleus and a pion are emitted with a V0--like topology. A method for tagging light nuclei with the new ITS, using the information on the size of the produced pixel clusters was developed.
The study of the $\mathrm{^{3}_{\Lambda}H} \rightarrow \mathrm{^{3}He} + \pi^{-}$ decay channel has been carried out using a detailed simulation of the new ITS. The expected yield, signal-to-background ratio and significance have been determined taking into account the target integrated luminosity of 10 nb$^{-1}$ for the ALICE upgrade programme.
| On behalf of collaboration: | ALICE |
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Primary author
Stefania Bufalino
(Universita e INFN (IT))
