Speaker
Description
NICA (Nuclotron-based heavy-Ion Collider fAcility) is a new flagship project at JINR (Dubna, Russia) aimed at the construction of a new accelerator complex for heavy ions and polarized particles [1]. Collisions of relativistic ions with energies up to 11 GeV (center-of-mass) will be studied with the MultiPurpose Detector MPD providing accurate precise tracking and reliable particle identification in high-multiplicity events [2]. Hyperons and hypernuclei are among the most valuable probes in heavy-ion reactions. Production of particles with strangeness is sensitive to the deconfinement phase transition as well as to in-medium hyperon-nucleon potentials [3,4]. Statistical thermal models predict the highest production rates of (hyper)nuclei in the NICA energy range [5], thus the NICA/MPD program offers a unique possibility to investigate the properties of strongly interacting matter in the region of high net-baryon density.
In this talk we’ll overview the prospects of the NICA physics program for the study of hyperons and hypernuclei and discuss the recent results of a detailed feasibility study for the reconstruction of hyperons and hypernuclei with the MPD detector in Bi+Bi collisions. In particular, the expected detector performance for the reconstruction of Lambda-hyperon invariant pT- spectra and 3H\Lambda as well as 4He\Lambda invariant mass distributions in centrality selected Bi+Bi collisions will be discussed.
References
[1] Kekelidze V., Lednicky R., Matveev V. et al. Three stages of the NICA accelerator complex. Eur. Phys. J. A. 2016, 52, 211.
[2] MPD Collaboration. Status and initial physics performance studies of the MPD experiment at NICA. Eur. Phys. J. A 2022, 58, 7.
[3] Johann Rafelski. Discovery of quark-gluon-plasma: strangeness diaries. The European Physical Journal Special Topics 2020, 229, 1-140.
[4] Koch V., Majumder A., Randrup J. Baryon-strangeness correlations: a diagnostic of strongly interacting matter. Phys. Rev. Lett. 2005, 95, 182301.
[5] Steinheimer, J., Gudima, K., Botvina, A., et al. Hypernuclei, dibaryon and antinuclei production in high energy heavy ion collisions: Thermal production vs. Coalescence. Phys. Lett. B. 2012, 714, 85.
