Measurement of Light Nuclei Production in Heavy-ion Collisions by the STAR experiment

TL;DR

This paper reports measurements of light nuclei production in heavy-ion collisions at different energies, revealing discrepancies with models and unique freeze-out behaviors at 3 GeV compared to higher energies.

Contribution

It provides new experimental data on light nuclei yields and their dependencies, highlighting differences from existing transport models and light hadron freeze-out trends.

Findings

Light nuclei yields are higher than model predictions at 3 GeV.

Kinetic freeze-out parameters at 3 GeV differ from those of light hadrons at higher energies.

Distinct production and freeze-out patterns observed at different collision energies.

Abstract

In these proceedings, we present the measurements of centrality, transverse momentum and rapidity dependences of proton ($p$) and light nuclei ($d$ ($\overline{d}$), $t$, $^{3}\mathrm{He}$ ($\overline{^{3}\mathrm{He}}$), and $^{4}\mathrm{He}$) production in Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}$ = 3 GeV, and isobaric (Ru+Ru and Zr+Zr) collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}$ = 200 GeV. The compound yield ratios in central collisions at 3 GeV are found to be larger than the transport model calculations. Furthermore, the kinetic freeze-out parameters at 3 GeV show a different trend compared to those of light hadrons ($\pi$, $K$, $p$) at higher energies.