Experimental Evidence for an Attractive p-phi Interaction

0548942 - ÚJF 2022 RIV US eng J - Journal Article
Acharya, S. - Adamová, Dagmar - Bielčík, J. - Bielčíková, Jana - Broz, M. - Contreras, J. G. - Herman, T. - Horák, D. - Isakov, Artem - Kotliarov, Artem - Křížek, Filip - Křížková Gajdošová, K. - Kushpil, Svetlana - Lavička, R. - Mareš, Jiří A. - Petráček, V. - Šafařík, K. - Šumbera, Michal - Torres, S. R. - Trzeciak, B. A. - Závada, Petr … Total 1029 authors
Experimental Evidence for an Attractive p-phi Interaction.
Physical Review Letters. Roč. 127, č. 17 (2021), č. článku 172301. ISSN 0031-9007. E-ISSN 1079-7114
R&D Projects: GA MŠMT(CZ) LTT17018
Research Infrastructure: CERN-CZ II - 90104
Institutional support: RVO:68378271 ; RVO:61389005
Keywords : ALICE collaboration * heavy ion experiment
OECD category: Nuclear physics; Particles and field physics (FZU-D)
Impact factor: 9.185, year: 2021
Method of publishing: Limited access
https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.127.172301

This Letter presents the first experimental evidence of the attractive strong interaction between a proton and a phi meson. The result is obtained from two-particle correlations of combined p-phi circle plus (p) over bar-phi pairs measured in high-multiplicity pp collisions at root s = 13 TeV by the ALICE Collaboration. The spin-averaged scattering length and effective range of the p-phi interaction are extracted from the fully corrected correlation function employing the Lednicky-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-phi interaction. These data demonstrate that the interaction is dominated by elastic p-phi scattering. Furthermore, an analysis employing phenomenological Gaussian-and Yukawa-type potentials is conducted. Under the assumption of the latter, the N-phi coupling constant is found to be g(N-phi) = 0.14 +/- 0.03(stat) +/- 0.02(syst). This work provides valuable experimental input to accomplish a self-consistent description of the N-phi interaction, which is particularly relevant for the more fundamental studies on partial restoration of chiral symmetry in nuclear medium.
Permanent Link: http://hdl.handle.net/11104/0324982