Testing coalescence and statistical-thermal production scenarios for (anti-)(hyper-)nuclei and exotic QCD objects at energies available at the CERN Large Hadron Collider

TL;DR

This paper compares coalescence and thermal-statistical models for (anti-)(hyper-)nuclei production at the LHC, revealing differences especially for objects with extended wave-functions and proposing experimental tests to distinguish models.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed comparison of these models as a function of object size relative to the source, highlighting their differences for hyper-triton production.

Findings

Both models agree for deuterons and helium-3 nuclei.

Large differences observed for hyper-triton production.

Experimental measurement of coalescence parameters can distinguish models.

Abstract

We present a detailed comparison of coalescence and thermal-statistical models for the production of (anti-)(hyper-)nuclei in high-energy collisions. For the first time, such a study is carried out as a function of the size of the object relative to the size of the particle emitting source. Our study reveals large differences between the two scenarios for the production of objects with extended wave-functions. While both models give similar predictions and show similar agreement with experimental data for (anti-)deuterons and (anti-)3He nuclei, they largely differ in their description of (anti-)hyper-triton production. We propose to address experimentally the comparison of the production models by measuring the coalescence parameter systematically for different (anti-)(hyper-)nuclei in different collision systems and differentially in multiplicity. Such measurements are feasible with the current and upgraded Large Hadron Collider experiments. Our findings highlight the unique potential of ultra-relativistic heavy-ion collisions as a laboratory to clarify the internal structure of exotic QCD objects and can serve as a basis for more refined calculations in the future.