Tuesday
8 Jul/25
11:00 - 12:00 (Europe/Zurich)

Examining the nucleosynthesis process and the inner nuclei structure with (anti)hypernuclei at the LHC

Where:  

503/1-001 at CERN

Hypernuclei are bound states of nucleons and hyperons. The measurement of the production of hypernuclei with mass number A=3 and 4 in heavy-ion colli- sions is a powerful tool to investigate the mechanism of the nucleosynthesis. In the coalescence model, the production yields are sensitive to the interplay be- tween the spatial extension of the nucleus wavefunction and the baryon-emitting source size, whereas, in the statistical hadronization model, the nuclear struc- ture does not come into play in the production. Hypernuclei span over a wide range of wavefunction radii, from about 2 fm for A=4 hypernuclei to about 10 fm for the hypertriton, making them ideal probes to test such models. In addi- tion, the study of hypernuclei properties provides information on the nucleon- hyperon interactions, complementing the results obtained through femtoscopy correlation measurements. The strength of such interactions is a fundamen- tal input to calculate the equation-of-state of the high-density nuclear matter found inside neutron stars. This contribution presents recent measurements of the production and properties of 3ΛH, 4ΛH, and 4ΛHe based on the data samples collected by ALICE during the LHC Run 2 and Run 3. The measurement of A=4 (anti)hypernuclei using the LHC Run 2 data enabled also for the first evidence of the 4ΛHe. By comparing the yield measurements of these objects to the state-of-the-art production models, the production mechanisms can be investigated and by obtaining the properties such as their binding energy and lifetime, inputs to the equation-of-state can be delivered.

 

Refreshments will be served at 10h30