Abstract
Deuterons are atomic nuclei composed of a neutron and a proton held together by the strong interaction. Unbound ensembles composed of a deuteron and a third nucleon have been investigated in the past using scattering experiments, and they constitute a fundamental reference in nuclear physics to constrain nuclear interactions and the properties of nuclei. In this work, K+-d and p-d femtoscopic correlations measured by the ALICE Collaboration in proton-proton (pp) collisions at √s ¼ 13 TeV at the Large Hadron Collider ffiffi (LHC) are presented. It is demonstrated that correlations in momentum space between deuterons and kaons or protons allow us to study three-hadron systems at distances comparable with the proton radius. The analysis of the K+-d correlation shows that the relative distances at which deuterons and protons or kaons are produced are around 2 fm. The analysis of the p-d correlation shows that only a full three-body calculation that accounts for the internal structure of the deuteron can explain the data. In particular, the sensitivity of the observable to the short-range part of the interaction is demonstrated. These results indicate that correlations involving light nuclei in pp collisions at the LHC will also provide access to any three-body system in the strange and charm sectors.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 031051 |
| Journal | Physical Review X |
| Volume | 14 |
| Issue number | 3 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Jul 2024 |
Funding
The ALICE Collaboration is grateful to Professor Johann Haidenbauer and Professor Tetsuo Hyodo for providing the derivation of the scattering parameters, and to Stanis\u0142aw Mr\u00F3wczy\u0144ski and Urs Wiedemann for fruitful 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 centers and the Worldwide LHC Computing Grid 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, State Committee of Science and World Federation of Scientists, Armenia; Austrian Academy of Sciences, Austrian Science Fund Grant No. 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, Financiadora de Estudos e Projetos, Funda\u00E7\u00E3o de Amparo \u00E0 Pesquisa do Estado de S\u00E3o Paulo, and Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil; Bulgarian Ministry of Education and Science, within the National Roadmap for Research Infrastructures 2020\u20132027 (object CERN), Bulgaria; Ministry of Education of China, Ministry of Science & Technology of China, and National Natural Science Foundation of China, China; Ministry of Science and Education and Croatian Science Foundation, Croatia; Centro de Aplicaciones Tecnol\u00F3gicas y Desarrollo Nuclear, 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, Denmark; Helsinki Institute of Physics, Finland; Commissariat \u00E0 l\u2019Energie Atomique and Institut National de Physique Nucl\u00E9aire et de Physique des Particules, and Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, France; Bundesministerium f\u00FCr Bildung und Forschung 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, Department of Science and Technology, Government of India, University Grants Commission, Government of India, and Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, India; National Research and Innovation Agency\u2014BRIN, Indonesia; Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Italy; Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology and Japan Society for the Promotion of Science KAKENHI, Japan; Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnolog\u00EDa, through Fondo de Cooperaci\u00F3n Internacional en Ciencia y Tecnolog\u00EDa, and Direcci\u00F3n General de Asuntos del Personal Academico, Mexico; Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek, Netherlands; The Research Council of Norway, Norway; Commission on Science and Technology for Sustainable Development in the South, 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, Republic of Korea; Ministry of Education and Scientific Research, Institute of Atomic Physics, Ministry of Research and Innovation, and Institute of Atomic Physics and Universitatea Nationala de Stiinta si Tehnologie Politehnica Bucuresti, Romania; Ministry of Education, Science, Research and Sport of the Slovak Republic, Slovakia; National Research Foundation of South Africa, South Africa; Swedish Research Council and Knut & Alice Wallenberg Foundation, Sweden; European Organization for Nuclear Research, Switzerland; Suranaree University of Technology, National Science and Technology Development Agency, and National Science, Research and Innovation Fund (via Grant No. PMU-B B05F650021), Thailand; Turkish Energy, Nuclear and Mineral Research Agency, Turkey; National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Ukraine; Science and Technology Facilities Council, United Kingdom; National Science Foundation of the United States of America and United States Department of Energy, Office of Nuclear Physics, USA. In addition, individual groups or members have received support from Czech Science Foundation (Grant No. 23-07499S), Czech Republic; European Research Council, Strong 2020\u2014Horizon 2020 (Grants No. 950692 and No. 824093), European Union; ICSC\u2014Centro Nazionale di Ricerca in High Performance Computing, Big Data and Quantum Computing, European Union\u2014NextGenerationEU; Academy of Finland (Center of Excellence in Quark Matter) (Grants No. 346327 and No. 346328), Finland. National Science Foundation, Grant No. PHY\u20132044632; U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Nuclear Physics, under the FRIB Theory Alliance, Award No. DE-SC0013617. The ALICE Collaboration is grateful to Professor Johann Haidenbauer and Professor Tetsuo Hyodo for providing the derivation of the K+-d scattering parameters, and to Stanis\u0142aw Mr\u00F3wczy\u0144ski and Urs Wiedemann for fruitful 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 centers and the Worldwide LHC Computing Grid Collaboration. The ALICE Collaboration acknowledges the following funding agencies for their support in building and running the ALICE detector: A. I. Alikhanyan National Science Laboratory (Yerevan Physics Institute) Foundation, State Committee of Science and World Federation of Scientists, Armenia; Austrian Academy of Sciences, Austrian Science Fund Grant No. 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, Financiadora de Estudos e Projetos, Funda\u00E7\u00E3o de Amparo \u00E0 Pesquisa do Estado de S\u00E3o Paulo, and Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil; Bulgarian Ministry of Education and Science, within the National Roadmap for Research Infrastructures 2020\u20132027 (object CERN), Bulgaria; Ministry of Education of China, Ministry of Science & Technology of China, and National Natural Science Foundation of China, China; Ministry of Science and Education and Croatian Science Foundation, Croatia; Centro de Aplicaciones Tecnol\u00F3gicas y Desarrollo Nuclear, 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, Denmark; Helsinki Institute of Physics, Finland; Commissariat \u00E0 l\u2019Energie Atomique and Institut National de Physique Nucl\u00E9aire et de Physique des Particules, and Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, France; Bundesministerium f\u00FCr Bildung und Forschung 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, Department of Science and Technology, Government of India, University Grants Commission, Government of India, and Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, India; National Research and Innovation Agency\u2014BRIN, Indonesia; Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Italy; Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology and Japan Society for the Promotion of Science KAKENHI, Japan; Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnolog\u00EDa, through Fondo de Cooperaci\u00F3n Internacional en Ciencia y Tecnolog\u00EDa, and Direcci\u00F3n General de Asuntos del Personal Academico, Mexico; Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek, Netherlands; The Research Council of Norway, Norway; Commission on Science and Technology for Sustainable Development in the South, 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, Republic of Korea; Ministry of Education and Scientific Research, Institute of Atomic Physics, Ministry of Research and Innovation, and Institute of Atomic Physics and Universitatea Nationala de Stiinta si Tehnologie Politehnica Bucuresti, Romania; Ministry of Education, Science, Research and Sport of the Slovak Republic, Slovakia; National Research Foundation of South Africa, South Africa; Swedish Research Council and Knut & Alice Wallenberg Foundation, Sweden; European Organization for Nuclear Research, Switzerland; Suranaree University of Technology, National Science and Technology Development Agency, and National Science, Research and Innovation Fund (via Grant No. PMU-B B05F650021), Thailand; Turkish Energy, Nuclear and Mineral Research Agency, Turkey; National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Ukraine; Science and Technology Facilities Council, United Kingdom; National Science Foundation of the United States of America and United States Department of Energy, Office of Nuclear Physics, USA. In addition, individual groups or members have received support from Czech Science Foundation (Grant No. 23-07499S), Czech Republic; European Research Council, Strong 2020\u2014Horizon 2020 (Grants No. 950692 and No. 824093), European Union; ICSC\u2014Centro Nazionale di Ricerca in High Performance Computing, Big Data and Quantum Computing, European Union\u2014NextGenerationEU; Academy of Finland (Center of Excellence in Quark Matter) (Grants No. 346327 and No. 346328), Finland. National Science Foundation, Grant No. PHY\u20132044632; U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Nuclear Physics, under the FRIB Theory Alliance, Award No. DE-SC0013617.