Probing Strangeness Hadronization with Event-by-Event Production of Multistrange Hadrons

Area of Science:

• High-energy nuclear physics
• Particle physics
• Quantum chromodynamics

Background:

• Understanding particle production mechanisms in high-energy collisions is crucial.
• Multistrange hadrons and kaons are sensitive probes of the hot and dense medium created in heavy-ion collisions.
• Event-by-event fluctuations provide insights into the early stages of particle production.

Purpose of the Study:

• To present the first measurement of event-by-event fluctuations of net Ξ^{-} and Ξ[over ¯]^{+} hadron numbers.
• To investigate the correlation between these fluctuations and net-kaon number.
• To test the validity of different theoretical models in describing these phenomena.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of data from proton-proton (pp), proton-lead (p-Pb), and lead-lead (Pb-Pb) collisions.
• Measurements conducted by the ALICE Collaboration at a center-of-mass energy of 5.02 TeV per nucleon pair.
• Comparison of experimental results with predictions from the statistical hadronization model and string-fragmentation models.

Main Results:

• The study reports the first measurements of net Ξ^{-} and Ξ[over ¯]^{+} fluctuations and their correlation with net-kaon number.
• The statistical hadronization model, incorporating correlations over three units of rapidity between hadrons with same and opposite strangeness, successfully describes the data.
• String-fragmentation models, which primarily correlate strange hadrons with opposite strange quark content over a limited rapidity range, fail to reproduce the experimental observations.

Conclusions:

• The findings support the statistical hadronization model as a suitable framework for describing particle production, including multistrange hadrons and kaons.
• The results highlight the importance of considering correlations over extended rapidity ranges and between hadrons with similar strangeness content.
• The failure of string-fragmentation models suggests limitations in their ability to capture the complex interplay of strangeness production in these collisions.