Probing strangeness hadronization with event-by-event production of multistrange hadrons

TL;DR

This study measures event-by-event fluctuations of multistrange hadrons in high-energy collisions, revealing that statistical hadronization models better describe the data than string-fragmentation models, providing insights into strangeness production.

Contribution

First measurement of event-by-event fluctuations of multistrange hadrons and their correlation with kaons across different collision systems at 5.02 TeV.

Findings

Statistical hadronization model successfully describes the data.

String-fragmentation models fail to reproduce the observed fluctuations.

Results support a correlated production mechanism over a rapidity range.

Abstract

This Letter presents the first measurement of event-by-event fluctuations of the net number (difference between the particle and antiparticle multiplicities) of multistrange hadrons $\Xi^-$ and $\overline{\Xi}^+$ and its correlation with the net-kaon number using the data collected by the ALICE Collaboration in pp, p$-$Pb, and Pb$-$Pb collisions at a center-of-mass energy per nucleon pair $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}=5.02\ \mathrm{TeV}$. The statistical hadronization model with a correlation over three units of rapidity between hadrons having the same and opposite strangeness content successfully describes the results. On the other hand, string-fragmentation models that mainly correlate strange hadrons with opposite strange quark content over a small rapidity range fail to describe the data.