Light (anti)nuclei production in high-energy nuclear collisions at the LHC with ALICE

TL;DR

This paper reports on the measurement of light (anti)nuclei production in high-energy collisions at the LHC using ALICE, providing insights into their production mechanisms through comparison with theoretical models.

Contribution

It presents multiplicity-dependent results on (anti)nuclei yields and ratios, comparing coalescence and statistical hadronization models in high-energy nuclear collisions.

Findings

Yields of light (anti)nuclei increase with multiplicity.

Nuclei-to-protons ratios vary with charged-particle multiplicity.

Results support coalescence and statistical hadronization models.

Abstract

The measurement of (anti)nuclei production in pp, p-A and A-A collisions at ultrarelativistic energies is important to understand hadronization. The excellent tracking and particle identification capabilities of ALICE make it the most suited detector at the LHC to study light (anti)nuclei produced in high-energy hadronic collisions. (Anti)nuclei with mass numbers up to 4, such as (anti)deuterons, (anti)tritons, (anti)$^3$He and (anti)$^4$He have been successfully identified in ALICE at midrapidity ($|\eta|<$0.9). In this contribution, multiplicity dependent results on the yields, nuclei-to-protons ratios as well as the coalescence parameter $B_{\mathrm A}$ as a function of the charged-particle multiplicity are presented and compared with the expectations of coalescence and statistical hadronization models (SHM) to provide insight into their production mechanism in heavy-ion collisions.