An insight into strangeness with $\phi$(1020) production in small to large collision systems with ALICE at the LHC

TL;DR

This paper investigates $\, ext{phi}\,$(1020) meson production across various collision systems at the LHC, providing insights into strangeness production, resonance effects, and testing theoretical models with new experimental data.

Contribution

It presents comprehensive measurements of $\, ext{phi}\,$(1020) production in different collision systems, enhancing understanding of strangeness production and resonance behavior in high-energy collisions.

Findings

$\, ext{phi}\,$ behaves like an open strangeness particle in small systems.

Results agree with thermal model predictions in large systems.

Production mechanisms include strangeness suppression and non-equilibrium processes.

Abstract

Hadronic resonances are unique tools to investigate the interplay of re-scattering and regeneration effects in the hadronic phase of heavy-ion collisions. As the $\phi$ meson has a longer lifetime compared to other resonances, it is expected that its production will not be affected by regeneration and re-scattering processes. Measurements in small collision systems such as proton-proton (pp) collisions provide a necessary baseline for heavy-ion data and help to tune pQCD inspired event generators. Given that the $\phi$ is a bound state of strange-antistrange quark pair (s$\bar{\rm{s}}$), measurements of its production can contribute to the study of strangeness production. Recent results obtained by using the ALICE detector show that although $\phi$ has zero net strangeness content, it behaves like a particle with open strangeness in small collision systems and the experimental results agree with thermal model predictions in large systems. The production mechanism of $\phi$ is yet to be understood. We report on measurements with the ALICE detector at the LHC of $\phi$ meson production in pp, p--Pb, Xe--Xe and Pb--Pb collisions. These results are reported for minimum bias event samples and as a function of the charged particle multiplicity or centrality. The results include the transverse momentum ($p_{\rm T}$) distributions of $\phi$ as well as the $\langle p_{\rm T}\rangle$ and particle yield ratios. The $\phi$ effective strangeness will be discussed in relation to descriptions of its production mechanism, such as strangeness canonical suppression, non-equilibrium production of strange quarks and thermal models.