Collision system size scan for light (anti-)nuclei and (anti-)hypertriton production in high energy nuclear collisions

TL;DR

This study investigates how the production yields of light (anti-)nuclei and (anti-)hypertriton vary with collision system size at RHIC, revealing differences between nuclei and anti-nuclei, especially for hypernuclei, and provides predictions for upcoming experiments.

Contribution

It offers the first systematic prediction of collision system dependence of light (anti-)nuclei and hypernuclei production ratios using coalescence and cascade models at RHIC.

Findings

Significant differences between nuclei and anti-nuclei yield ratios.

Greater suppression observed for hypernuclei compared to light nuclei.

Strangeness population factors vary with atomic mass number.

Abstract

The production of light (anti-)nuclei and (anti-)hypertriton in a recent collsion system size scan program proposed for the STAR experiment at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) is investigated by using the dynamically constrained phase-space coalescence model and the parton and hadron cascade model. The collision system dependence of yield ratios for deuteron to proton, helium-3 to proton, and hypertriton to $\Lambda$-hyperon with the corresponding values for antiparticles is predicted. The work presents that for the yield ratios a significant difference exists between (hyper)nuclei and their anti-(hyper)nuclei. Besides, much more suppression for (anti-)hypernuclei than light (anti-)nuclei is present. We further investigate strangeness population factors $s_3$ as a function of atomic mass number $A$. Our present study can provide a reference for a upcoming collision system scan program at RHIC.