Multiplicity dependence of strangeness and hadronic resonance production in pp and p-Pb collisions with ALICE at the LHC

TL;DR

This paper investigates how strangeness and resonance production depend on event multiplicity in small collision systems at the LHC, revealing a smooth increase in strange particle yields and insights into hadronic interactions.

Contribution

It provides new measurements of strange and multi-strange hadron production and resonance yields in pp and p-Pb collisions at higher energies, enhancing understanding of strangeness enhancement mechanisms.

Findings

Strange particle yields increase smoothly with multiplicity.

Resonance yields are affected by hadronic scattering processes.

Multiplicity dependence constrains models of strangeness production.

Abstract

One of the key results of the LHC Run 1 was the observation of an enhanced production of strange particles in high multiplicity pp and p--Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_\mathrm{NN}}$ = 7 and 5.02 TeV, respectively. The strangeness enhancement is investigated by measuring the evolution with multiplicity of single-strange and multi-strange baryon production relative to non-strange particles. A smooth increase of strange particle yields relative to the non-strange ones with event multiplicity has been observed in such systems. We report the latest results on multiplicity dependence of strange and multi-strange hadron production in pp collisions at $\sqrt{s} = $ 13 TeV with ALICE. We also presented recent measurements of mesonic and baryonic resonances in small collision systems like pp and p--Pb at $\sqrt{s_\mathrm{NN}}$ = 13 and 8.16 TeV, respectively. The system size dependent studies in pp and p-Pb collisions have been used to investigate how the hadronic scattering processes affect measured resonance yields and to better understand the interplay between canonical suppression and strangeness enhancement. The measurement of the $\phi(1020)$ meson as a function of multiplicity provides crucial constraints in this context.