First observation of deuteron-{\Lambda} correlations at RHIC

TL;DR

This paper reports the first experimental measurement of deuteron-{\Lambda} hyperon correlations at RHIC, providing new insights into hyperon-nucleon interactions and hypertriton properties through correlation analysis.

Contribution

It presents the first experimental correlation functions between deuterons and {\Lambda} hyperons at RHIC, extracting interaction parameters and proposing a new method to determine hypertriton separation energy.

Findings

Observed enhancement at small relative momenta in correlation function

Extracted source size and interaction parameters using Bayesian inference

Proposed a novel method to determine hypertriton separation energy

Abstract

Precise experimental information on hyperon-nucleon interactions is scarce but of paramount importance to our understanding of the inner structure of compact stars. In this letter, we report the first experimental results of correlation functions between deuterons (d) and {\Lambda} hyperons in Au+Au collisions at \sqrt{s_{NN} = 3.0 GeV measured by the STAR experiment at RHIC. A clear enhancement at small relative momenta has been observed in the correlation function. Through a Bayesian inference analysis, the source size parameters as a function of collision centrality and the spin- dependent strong interaction parameters (scattering length f0 and effective range d0) are extracted using the Lednick\'y-Lyuboshitz formalism. The derived doublet spin state parameters (f0, d0) lead to a novel method to precisely determine {\Lambda} separation energy for the weakly bounded hypertriton ^{3}_{{\Lambda}}H.