Studying particle production in small systems through correlation measurements in ALICE

TL;DR

This paper presents angular correlation measurements of hadron pairs in proton-proton collisions at the LHC, comparing results with models to understand particle production mechanisms, especially for baryons and strange hadrons.

Contribution

It provides new correlation data in small systems and highlights discrepancies with models for baryon and strange hadron correlations.

Findings

Correlation data agree with models for minijet fragmentation

Discrepancies observed in baryon and strange hadron correlations

Charge-dependent effects are probed through same-sign and opposite-sign correlations

Abstract

In these proceedings, measurements of angular correlations between hadron pairs in pp collisions obtained by the ALICE experiment at the LHC are presented and compared with phenomenological predictions. Correlations between particles carrying the same and opposite quantum numbers are studied to understand the hadron production mechanism, and the difference between same-sign and opposite-sign correlations is used to probe charge-dependent effects in particle production. Correlation measurements dominated by minijet fragmentation agree well with the models, but other results, in particular correlations between baryons and strange hadrons, are not yet understood.