(Anti)(hyper)nuclei production in small collision systems measured with ALICE at the LHC

TL;DR

This paper discusses the production mechanisms of (anti)nuclei in small collision systems at the LHC, comparing experimental results with theoretical models to enhance understanding of nucleosynthesis in high-energy collisions.

Contribution

It provides new measurements of (anti)deuteron production in various small collision systems and analyzes these results within the statistical and coalescence models.

Findings

Measurements in jets and underlying events at 13 TeV offer new insights.

Data supports or challenges existing phenomenological models.

Enhanced understanding of light (anti)nuclei formation mechanisms.

Abstract

The production mechanism of (anti)nuclei in ultrarelativistic hadronic collisions is under intense debate in the scientific community. The description of the experimental measurements is currently based on two competing phenomenological models: the statistical hadronization model and the coalescence approach. Light (anti)nuclei have been extensively measured in small collision systems, namely pp and p--Pb collisions, with ALICE at the LHC. Recent results on the (anti)deuteron production measured in jets and in the underlying event, and in high-multiplicity pp collisions at a center-of-mass energy $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV are discussed in the context of phenomenological models, as they provide new insights on the nucleosynthesis process.