Femtoscopy with L\'evy sources at NA61/SHINE

TL;DR

This paper investigates femtoscopic correlations in small to intermediate nuclear collision systems at CERN SPS, using Lévý source models to explore the source shape and its relation to the QCD critical point.

Contribution

It introduces measurements of Lévý source parameters in various collision systems and discusses their potential connection to the QCD critical endpoint.

Findings

Lévý source parameters vary with pair transverse mass.

The Lévý exponent $$ may indicate proximity to the critical point.

Results contribute to understanding the space-time structure of hadron emission.

Abstract

In the recent decades of high-energy physics research, it was demonstrated that strongly interacting quark-gluon plasma (sQGP) is created in ultra-relativistic nucleus-nucleus collisions. Investigation and understanding of the properties of the hadronic matter are among the most important goals of the NA61/SHINE collaboration at CERN SPS. Mapping of the phase diagram is achieved by varying the collision energy (5 GeV $\sqrt{s_{NN}}<17$ GeV) and by changing the collision system ($p$+$p$, $p$+Pb, Be+Be, Ar+Sc, Xe+La, Pb+Pb). Femtoscopic correlations reveal the space-time structure of the hadron emitting source. In this article, we report on the measurement of femtoscopic correlations in small to intermediate systems. Comparing the measurements to calculations based on symmetric L\'evy sources, we discuss the results on L\'evy source parameters as a function of average pair transverse mass. One of the physical parameters is of particular importance, the L\'evy exponent $\alpha$, which describes the shape of the source and may be related to the critical exponent $\eta$ in the proximity of the critical point. Therefore, measuring it may shed light on the location of the critical endpoint of the QCD phase diagram.