Strangeness production in p--Pb collisions at 8.16 TeV

TL;DR

This paper reports on the measurement of strange hadron production in p--Pb collisions at 8.16 TeV using the ALICE detector, aiming to understand the properties of the quark-gluon plasma and differences between small and large systems.

Contribution

It provides new experimental data on strange hadron production at high energy p--Pb collisions and compares results with theoretical models EPOS and DPMJet.

Findings

Strange hadron yields depend on collision centrality and transverse momentum.

Results show differences between experimental data and model predictions.

Data contribute to understanding QGP signatures in small systems.

Abstract

A Large Ion Collider Experiment (ALICE) is one of the four big experiments installed at the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC) and it is suited to study pp, p--Pb and Pb--Pb collisions. It aims to study the strongly interacting matter at extreme conditions of temperature and density under which the quarks decouple to form a new state of matter called the Quark Gluon Plasma (QGP). Such a state of matter existed a few microseconds after the Big Bang in which the universe was created. Several experimental observables, sensitive to the evolution of the system after the nuclear collisions, reveal important information about the properties of the QGP. Among such observables is the production rate of strange quarks. It is now confirmed that the strange quarks would be produced with higher probability in a QGP scenario with respect to that expected in a pure hadron gas scenario. Therefore, studies of strangeness production can help to determine the properties of the created system. The studies are now revised at much higher LHC energies and are compared with the lower energy measurements to clarify the full picture. The work which will be presented here is related to the strangeness production in p--Pb collisions with ALICE detector. These collisions in particular, can contribute to the understanding of the differences between small and large interacting systems. The excellent tracking and particle identification capabilities of ALICE can be used to reconstruct the strange hadrons by means of the tracks of their weak decays. The analysis status of strange ($K^{0}_{s}$ and $\Lambda$) hadrons in p--Pb at $8.16\text{ TeV}$ at mid-rapidity as a function of $p_{\rm T}$ and centrality will be presented. The comparison of the experimental results with the EPOS and DPMJet predictions will be also discussed.