17–22 May 2021
US/Eastern timezone

Production of light nuclei in small collision systems with ALICE

21 May 2021, 09:50
20m
Room A (Zoom)

Room A

Zoom

zoom co-host: Niveditha Ramasubramanian https://stonybrook.zoom.us/j/99346269726
Experimental talk Bulk matter phenomena associated with strange and heavy quarks Bulk (Small systems)

Speaker

Chiara Pinto (INFN and University of Catania)

Description

The energy densities reached in high-energy hadronic collisions at the LHC allow significant production of light (anti)nuclei. Their production yields have been measured as a function of $p_{\rm T}$ and charged-particle multiplicity in different collision systems and at different center-of-mass energies by ALICE. One of the most interesting results obtained from such a large variety of experimental data is that the dominant production mechanism of light (anti)nuclei seems to depend solely on the event charged-particle multiplicity. Evidence for this comes from the continuous evolution of the deuteron-to-proton and $^3$He-to-proton ratios with the event multiplicity across different collision systems and energies. The characterization of the light nuclei production mechanism is complemented by measurements of their production yields in jets, where hard QCD processes are dominant, and in the underlying event, which is dominated by soft QCD processes.

In this contribution, recent results on light nuclei production in proton-proton and proton-lead collisions are shown and discussed in the context of the statistical hadronization and coalescence models. In addition, final results on the deuteron production in jets and new preliminary results on its production in the underlying event measured in proton-proton collisions at 13 TeV are shown.

Collaboration ALICE

Author

Chiara Pinto (INFN and University of Catania)

Presentation materials