Violation of the elliptic flow scaling of $f_0(980)$ in p-Pb collisions at the LHC

TL;DR

This paper studies the elliptic flow of the $f_0(980)$ meson in high-multiplicity p-Pb collisions at the LHC, revealing a breakdown of simple number-of-constituent scaling, which challenges the molecular interpretation of its structure.

Contribution

It demonstrates that the elliptic flow of $f_0(980)$ does not follow expected scaling laws, providing new insights into its internal structure and production mechanisms.

Findings

Supports the $Kar K$ molecular interpretation of $f_0(980)$

Shows breakdown of simple NC scaling for $f_0(980)$ elliptic flow

Contrasts $f_0(980)$ behavior with deuteron elliptic flow

Abstract

We investigate the production and elliptic flow of the $f_0(980)$ in high-multiplicity p-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=5.02$ TeV using a hadronic coalescence model with the $K$ and $\bar K$ phase-space distributions provided by the Hydro-Coal-Frag hybrid model. Our results, which agree with the ALICE and CMS measurements, support the $K\bar K$ molecular interpretation of the $f_0(980)$ structure and show, however, a breakdown of the simple number-of-constituent (NC) scaling of its elliptic flow. The latter is in contrast to the deuteron elliptic flow, which exhibits a significantly better NC scaling when the same coalescence width parameter is used.