Relativistic kinetic approach to light nuclei production in high-energy nuclear collisions

Abstract

Understanding the production mechanism of light (anti-)nuclei in high-energy nuclear collisions and cosmic rays has been a long-standing problem in nuclear physics. In the present study, we develop a stochastic method to solve the relativistic kinetic equations for light nuclei production from many-body reactions with the inclusion of their finite sizes. The present approach gives an excellent description of the deuteron and helium-3 data from central Au+Au (Pb+Pb) collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}$ $=$ $200\mathrm{GeV}$ ($2.76\mathrm{TeV}$). It can also naturally explain their suppressed production in $pp$ collisions at 7 TeV as a result of their finite sizes.

7 pages, 3 figures