Study of the p–p–K$$^{+}$$ and p–p–K$$^{-}$$ dynamics using the femtoscopy technique
S. Acharya, D. Adamová, A. Adler, G. Aglieri Rinella, M. Agnello, N. Agrawal, Z. Ahammed, S. Ahmad, S. U. Ahn, I. Ahuja, A. Akindinov, M. Al-Turany, D. Aleksandrov, B. Alessandro, H. M. Alfanda, R. Alfaro Molina, Bushra Ali, A. Alici, N. Alizadehvandchali, A. Alkin, J. Alme, G. Alocco, T. Alt, I. Altsybeev, M. N. Anaam, C. Andrei, A. Andronic, V. Anguelov, F. Antinori, P. Antonioli, N. Apadula, L. Aphecetche, H. Appelshäuser, C. Arata, S. Arcelli, M. Aresti, R. Arnaldi, Jhoao Gabriel Martins Campos Almeida Arneiro, I. C. Arsene, M. Arslandok, A. Augustinus, R. Averbeck, M. D. Azmi, A. Badalà, J. Bae, Y. W. Baek, X. Bai, R. Bailhache, Y. Bailung, A. Balbino, A. Baldisseri, Bartosz Baliś, D. Banerjee, Z. Banoo, R. Barbera, F. Barile, L. Barioglio, M. Barlou, G. G. Barnaföldi, L. S. Barnby, V. Barret, L. Barreto, C. Bartels, K. Barth, E. Bartsch, N. Bastid, S. Basu, G. Batigne, D. Battistini, B. Batyunya, D. Bauri, J. L. Bazo Alba, I. G. Bearden, C. Beattie, P. Becht, D. Behera, I. Belikov, A. D. C. Bell Hechavarria, F. Bellini, R. Bellwied, S. Belokurova, G. Bencédi, S. Beolè, A. Bercuci, Y. Berdnikov, A. Berdnikova, L. Bergmann, Mihaela Gabriela Besoiu, L. Betev, Partha Pratim Bhaduri, A. Bhasin, M. A. Bhat, B. Bhattacharjee, L. Bianchi, N. Bianchi, J. Bielčík, J. Bielčíková, J. Biernat, A. P. Bigot, A. Bilandzic
Abstract
Abstract The interactions of kaons (K) and antikaons ( $$\mathrm {\overline{K}}$$ <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:mover> <mml:mi>K</mml:mi> <mml:mo>¯</mml:mo> </mml:mover> </mml:math> ) with few nucleons (N) were studied so far using kaonic atom data and measurements of kaon production and interaction yields in nuclei. Some details of the three-body KNN and $$\mathrm {\overline{K}}$$ <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:mover> <mml:mi>K</mml:mi> <mml:mo>¯</mml:mo> </mml:mover> </mml:math> NN dynamics are still not well understood, mainly due to the overlap with multi-nucleon interactions in nuclei. An alternative method to probe the dynamics of three-body systems with kaons is to study the final state interaction within triplet of particles emitted in pp collisions at the Large Hadron Collider, which are free from effects due to the presence of bound nucleons. This Letter reports the first femtoscopic study of p–p–K $$^+$$ <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:msup> <mml:mrow/> <mml:mo>+</mml:mo> </mml:msup> </mml:math> and p–p–K $$^-$$ <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:msup> <mml:mrow/> <mml:mo>-</mml:mo> </mml:msup> </mml:math> correlations measured in high-multiplicity pp collisions at $$\sqrt{s}$$ <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:msqrt> <mml:mi>s</mml:mi> </mml:msqrt> </mml:math> = 13 TeV by the ALICE Collaboration. The analysis shows that the measured p–p–K $$^+$$ <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:msup> <mml:mrow/> <mml:mo>+</mml:mo> </mml:msup> </mml:math> and p–p–K $$^-$$ <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:msup> <mml:mrow/> <mml:mo>-</mml:mo> </mml:msup> </mml:math> correlation functions can be interpreted in terms of pairwise interactions in the triplets, indicating that the dynamics of such systems is dominated by the two-body interactions without significant contributions from three-body effects or bound states.