Experimental Evidence for an Attractive p-φ Interaction

(ALICE Collaboration)

doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.127.172301

Experimental Evidence for an Attractive p-φ Interaction

(ALICE Collaboration)

Relativistic Nuclear Physics

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

51 Scopus citations

Abstract

This Letter presents the first experimental evidence of the attractive strong interaction between a proton and a φ meson. The result is obtained from two-particle correlations of combined p-φ p¯-φ pairs measured in high-multiplicity pp collisions at s=13 TeV by the ALICE Collaboration. The spin-averaged scattering length and effective range of the p-φ interaction are extracted from the fully corrected correlation function employing the Lednický-Lyuboshits approach. In particular, the imaginary part of the scattering length vanishes within uncertainties, indicating that inelastic processes do not play a prominent role for the p-φ interaction. These data demonstrate that the interaction is dominated by elastic p-φ scattering. Furthermore, an analysis employing phenomenological Gaussian- and Yukawa-type potentials is conducted. Under the assumption of the latter, the N-φ coupling constant is found to be gN-φ=0.14±0.03(stat)±0.02(syst). This work provides valuable experimental input to accomplish a self-consistent description of the N-φ interaction, which is particularly relevant for the more fundamental studies on partial restoration of chiral symmetry in nuclear medium.

Original language	English
Article number	172301
Journal	Physical Review Letters
Volume	127
Issue number	17
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.127.172301
State	Published - Oct 22 2021

Funding

The ALICE Collaboration is grateful to P. Gubler and N. Kaiser for valuable discussions. The ALICE Collaboration would like to thank all its engineers and technicians for their invaluable contributions to the construction of the experiment and the CERN accelerator teams for the outstanding performance of the LHC complex. The ALICE Collaboration gratefully acknowledges the resources and support provided by all Grid centres and the Worldwide LHC Computing Grid (WLCG) Collaboration. The ALICE Collaboration acknowledges the following funding agencies for their support in building and running the ALICE detector: A.\u2009I. Alikhanyan National Science Laboratory (Yerevan Physics Institute) Foundation (ANSL), State Committee of Science and World Federation of Scientists (WFS), Armenia; Austrian Academy of Sciences, Austrian Science Fund (FWF): [M 2467-N36] and Nationalstiftung f\u00FCr Forschung, Technologie und Entwicklung, Austria; Ministry of Communications and High Technologies, National Nuclear Research Center, Azerbaijan; Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Cient\u00EDfico e Tecnol\u00F3gico (CNPq), Financiadora de Estudos e Projetos (Finep), Funda\u00E7\u00E3o de Amparo \u00E0 Pesquisa do Estado de S\u00E3o Paulo (FAPESP) and Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), Brazil; Ministry of Education of China (MOEC), Ministry of Science & Technology of China (MSTC) and National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC), China; Ministry of Science and Education and Croatian Science Foundation, Croatia; Centro de Aplicaciones Tecnol\u00F3gicas y Desarrollo Nuclear (CEADEN), Cubaenerg\u00EDa, Cuba; Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic, Czech Republic; The Danish Council for Independent Research | Natural Sciences, the VILLUM FONDEN and Danish National Research Foundation (DNRF), Denmark; Helsinki Institute of Physics (HIP), Finland; Commissariat \u00E0 l\u2019Energie Atomique (CEA) and Institut National de Physique Nucl\u00E9aire et de Physique des Particules (IN2P3) and Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), France; Bundesministerium f\u00FCr Bildung und Forschung (BMBF) and GSI Helmholtzzentrum f\u00FCr Schwerionenforschung GmbH, Germany; General Secretariat for Research and Technology, Ministry of Education, Research and Religions, Greece; National Research, Development and Innovation Office, Hungary; Department of Atomic Energy Government of India (DAE), Department of Science and Technology, Government of India (DST), University Grants Commission, Government of India (UGC) and Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), India; Indonesian Institute of Science, Indonesia; Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN), Italy; Institute for Innovative Science and Technology, Nagasaki Institute of Applied Science (IIST), Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) and Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) KAKENHI, Japan; Consejo Nacional de Ciencia (CONACYT) y Tecnolog\u00EDa, through Fondo de Cooperaci\u00F3n Internacional en Ciencia y Tecnolog\u00EDa (FONCICYT) and Direcci\u00F3n General de Asuntos del Personal Academico (DGAPA), Mexico; Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (NWO), Netherlands; The Research Council of Norway, Norway; Commission on Science and Technology for Sustainable Development in the South (COMSATS), Pakistan; Pontificia Universidad Cat\u00F3lica del Per\u00FA, Peru; Ministry of Education and Science, National Science Centre and WUT ID-UB, Poland; Korea Institute of Science and Technology Information and National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF), Republic of Korea; Ministry of Education and Scientific Research, Institute of Atomic Physics and Ministry of Research and Innovation and Institute of Atomic Physics, Romania; Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR), Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation, National Research Centre Kurchatov Institute, Russian Science Foundation and Russian Foundation for Basic Research, Russia; Ministry of Education, Science, Research and Sport of the Slovak Republic, Slovakia; National Research Foundation of South Africa, South Africa; Swedish Research Council (VR) and Knut & Alice Wallenberg Foundation (KAW), Sweden; European Organization for Nuclear Research, Switzerland; Suranaree University of Technology (SUT), National Science and Technology Development Agency (NSDTA) and Office of the Higher Education Commission under NRU project of Thailand, Thailand; Turkish Energy, Nuclear and Mineral Research Agency (TENMAK), Turkey; National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Ukraine; Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), United Kingdom; National Science Foundation of the United States of America (NSF) and United States Department of Energy, Office of Nuclear Physics (DOE NP), USA.

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10.1103/PhysRevLett.127.172301

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@article{c5d4a6b58f99402d88e85e5d654bda72,

title = "Experimental Evidence for an Attractive p-φ Interaction",

abstract = "This Letter presents the first experimental evidence of the attractive strong interaction between a proton and a φ meson. The result is obtained from two-particle correlations of combined p-φ p¯-φ pairs measured in high-multiplicity pp collisions at s=13 TeV by the ALICE Collaboration. The spin-averaged scattering length and effective range of the p-φ interaction are extracted from the fully corrected correlation function employing the Lednick{\'y}-Lyuboshits approach. In particular, the imaginary part of the scattering length vanishes within uncertainties, indicating that inelastic processes do not play a prominent role for the p-φ interaction. These data demonstrate that the interaction is dominated by elastic p-φ scattering. Furthermore, an analysis employing phenomenological Gaussian- and Yukawa-type potentials is conducted. Under the assumption of the latter, the N-φ coupling constant is found to be gN-φ=0.14±0.03(stat)±0.02(syst). This work provides valuable experimental input to accomplish a self-consistent description of the N-φ interaction, which is particularly relevant for the more fundamental studies on partial restoration of chiral symmetry in nuclear medium.",

author = "{(ALICE Collaboration)} and S. Acharya and D. Adamov{\'a} and A. Adler and J. Adolfsson and {Aglieri Rinella}, G. and M. Agnello and N. Agrawal and Z. Ahammed and S. Ahmad and Ahn, {S. U.} and I. Ahuja and Z. Akbar and A. Akindinov and M. Al-Turany and Alam, {S. N.} and D. Aleksandrov and B. Alessandro and Alfanda, {H. M.} and {Alfaro Molina}, R. and B. Ali and Y. Ali and A. Alici and N. Alizadehvandchali and A. Alkin and J. Alme and T. Alt and L. Altenkamper and I. Altsybeev and Anaam, {M. N.} and C. Andrei and D. Andreou and A. Andronic and M. Angeletti and V. Anguelov and F. Antinori and P. Antonioli and C. Anuj and N. Apadula and L. Aphecetche and H. Appelsh{\"a}user and S. Arcelli and R. Arnaldi and Arsene, {I. C.} and M. Arslandok and A. Augustinus and R. Averbeck and S. Aziz and F. Bock and Read, {K. F.} and Schmidt, {N. V.}",

note = "Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2021 CERN.",

year = "2021",

month = oct,

day = "22",

doi = "10.1103/PhysRevLett.127.172301",

language = "English",

volume = "127",

journal = "Physical Review Letters",

issn = "0031-9007",

publisher = "American Physical Society",

number = "17",

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TY - JOUR

T1 - Experimental Evidence for an Attractive p-φ Interaction

AU - (ALICE Collaboration)

AU - Acharya, S.

AU - Adamová, D.

AU - Adler, A.

AU - Adolfsson, J.

AU - Aglieri Rinella, G.

AU - Agnello, M.

AU - Agrawal, N.

AU - Ahammed, Z.

AU - Ahmad, S.

AU - Ahn, S. U.

AU - Ahuja, I.

AU - Akbar, Z.

AU - Akindinov, A.

AU - Al-Turany, M.

AU - Alam, S. N.

AU - Aleksandrov, D.

AU - Alessandro, B.

AU - Alfanda, H. M.

AU - Alfaro Molina, R.

AU - Ali, B.

AU - Ali, Y.

AU - Alici, A.

AU - Alizadehvandchali, N.

AU - Alkin, A.

AU - Alme, J.

AU - Alt, T.

AU - Altenkamper, L.

AU - Altsybeev, I.

AU - Anaam, M. N.

AU - Andrei, C.

AU - Andreou, D.

AU - Andronic, A.

AU - Angeletti, M.

AU - Anguelov, V.

AU - Antinori, F.

AU - Antonioli, P.

AU - Anuj, C.

AU - Apadula, N.

AU - Aphecetche, L.

AU - Appelshäuser, H.

AU - Arcelli, S.

AU - Arnaldi, R.

AU - Arsene, I. C.

AU - Arslandok, M.

AU - Augustinus, A.

AU - Averbeck, R.

AU - Aziz, S.

AU - Bock, F.

AU - Read, K. F.

AU - Schmidt, N. V.

PY - 2021/10/22

Y1 - 2021/10/22

N2 - This Letter presents the first experimental evidence of the attractive strong interaction between a proton and a φ meson. The result is obtained from two-particle correlations of combined p-φ p¯-φ pairs measured in high-multiplicity pp collisions at s=13 TeV by the ALICE Collaboration. The spin-averaged scattering length and effective range of the p-φ interaction are extracted from the fully corrected correlation function employing the Lednický-Lyuboshits approach. In particular, the imaginary part of the scattering length vanishes within uncertainties, indicating that inelastic processes do not play a prominent role for the p-φ interaction. These data demonstrate that the interaction is dominated by elastic p-φ scattering. Furthermore, an analysis employing phenomenological Gaussian- and Yukawa-type potentials is conducted. Under the assumption of the latter, the N-φ coupling constant is found to be gN-φ=0.14±0.03(stat)±0.02(syst). This work provides valuable experimental input to accomplish a self-consistent description of the N-φ interaction, which is particularly relevant for the more fundamental studies on partial restoration of chiral symmetry in nuclear medium.

AB - This Letter presents the first experimental evidence of the attractive strong interaction between a proton and a φ meson. The result is obtained from two-particle correlations of combined p-φ p¯-φ pairs measured in high-multiplicity pp collisions at s=13 TeV by the ALICE Collaboration. The spin-averaged scattering length and effective range of the p-φ interaction are extracted from the fully corrected correlation function employing the Lednický-Lyuboshits approach. In particular, the imaginary part of the scattering length vanishes within uncertainties, indicating that inelastic processes do not play a prominent role for the p-φ interaction. These data demonstrate that the interaction is dominated by elastic p-φ scattering. Furthermore, an analysis employing phenomenological Gaussian- and Yukawa-type potentials is conducted. Under the assumption of the latter, the N-φ coupling constant is found to be gN-φ=0.14±0.03(stat)±0.02(syst). This work provides valuable experimental input to accomplish a self-consistent description of the N-φ interaction, which is particularly relevant for the more fundamental studies on partial restoration of chiral symmetry in nuclear medium.

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U2 - 10.1103/PhysRevLett.127.172301

DO - 10.1103/PhysRevLett.127.172301

M3 - Article

C2 - 34739260

AN - SCOPUS:85119580268

SN - 0031-9007

VL - 127

JO - Physical Review Letters

JF - Physical Review Letters

IS - 17

M1 - 172301

ER -

Experimental Evidence for an Attractive p-φ Interaction

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