(Anti-)nuclei production and flow in pp, p--Pb and Pb--Pb collisions with ALICE

Abstract

High energy pp, p--Pb, and Pb--Pb collisions at the LHC offer a unique opportunity to study the production of light (anti-)nuclei. The study of the production yield of (anti-)nuclei in heavy-ion collisions at LHC energies probes the late stages in the evolution of the hot, dense nuclear matter created in the collision. Measurements performed in smaller collision systems are crucial to understand how the production mechanism evolves going from small to large systems. The results on the determination of the (anti-)nuclei yields will be complemented by the measurement of their azimuthal anisotropic production. This is a powerful tool to gain insight into the production mechanism of light nuclei in relativistic ion collisions: in particular, it will help to distinguish between coalescence and hydrodynamic models. The coalescence parameter and the nuclei-to-proton ratio is studied as a function of the system size, showing a smooth transition from low to high values of the charged-particle multiplicity density. The experimental results can be described with the canonical statistical hadronization model as well as the coalescence approach within uncertainties. The theoretical description of the new results on the measurement of the elliptic and the triangular flow of deuterons and $^3$He produced in Pb--Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_\mathrm{NN}} = 5.02$ TeV requires more sophisticated coalescence and statistical hadronization models.