K${}^{\ast }$(892)${}^{\pm }$ resonance production in Pb$-$Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}$ = 5.02 TeV

Abstract

The production of K${}^{\ast }$(892)${}^{\pm }$ meson resonance is measured at midrapidity ($|y|<0.5$) in Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}=5.02$ TeV using the ALICE detector at the LHC. The resonance is reconstructed via its hadronic decay channel K${}^{\ast }$(892)${}^{\pm }\to {\mathrm{K}}_{\mathrm{S}}^0{\pi }^{\pm }$. The transverse momentum distributions are obtained for various centrality intervals in the $p_{\mathrm{T}}$ range of 0.4-16 GeV/$c$. The reported measurements of integrated yields, mean transverse momenta, and particle yield ratios are consistent with previous ALICE measurements for K${}^{\ast }$(892)${}^0$. The $p_{\mathrm{T}}$-integrated yield ratio 2K${}^{\ast }$(892)${}^{\pm }$/(${\mathrm{K}}^{+}+{\mathrm{K}}^{-}$) in central Pb-Pb collisions shows a significant suppression (9.3$\sigma$) relative to pp collisions. Thermal model calculations overpredict the particle yield ratio. Although both simulations consider the hadronic phase, only HRG-PCE accurately represents the measurements, whereas MUSIC+SMASH tends to overpredict them. These observations, along with the kinetic freeze-out temperatures extracted from the yields of light-flavored hadrons using the HRG-PCE model, indicate a finite hadronic phase lifetime, which increases towards central collisions. The $p_{\mathrm{T}}$-differential yield ratios 2K${}^{\ast }$(892)${}^{\pm }$/(${\mathrm{K}}^{+}+{\mathrm{K}}^{-}$) and 2K${}^{\ast }$(892)${}^{\pm }$/(${\pi }^{+}+{\pi }^{-}$) are suppressed by up to a factor of five at $p_{\mathrm{T}}<2$ GeV/$c$ in central Pb-Pb collisions compared to pp collisions at $\sqrt{s}=$ 5.02 TeV. Both particle ratios and are qualitatively consistent with expectations for rescattering effects in the hadronic phase. The nuclear modification factor shows a smooth evolution with centrality and is below unity at $p_{\mathrm{T}}>8$ GeV/$c$, consistent with measurements for other light-flavored hadrons. The smallest values are observed in most central collisions, indicating larger energy loss of partons traversing the dense medium.

28 pages, 8 captioned figures, 3 tables, authors from page 22, published version, figures at http://alice-publications.web.cern.ch/node/9596

References in corpus (9)

• Glauber Modeling in High Energy Nuclear Collisions
• Elliptic and triangular flow in event-by-event (3+1)D viscous hydrodynamics
• K*(892)${}^0$ and $\Phi$(1020) production in Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}$ = 2.76 TeV
• Energy dependence of phi meson production in central Pb+Pb collisions at sqrt(s_nn) = 6 to 17 GeV
• Measurements of $\varphi$ meson production in relativistic heavy-ion collisions at RHIC
• Chemical freeze-out in ultra-relativistic heavy ion collisions at sqrt(s)_NN = 130 and 200 GeV
• The strongly coupled quark-gluon plasma created at RHIC
• Jozso's Legacy: Chemical and Kinetic Freeze-out in Heavy-Ion Collisions
• Studying re-scattering effect in heavy-ion collision through $K^{\ast }$ Production

Cited by in corpus (3)

• Measurement of f${}_1$(1285) production in pp collisions at $\sqrt{\text{s}}$ = 13 TeV
• Determination of the $\varphi$-meson production process and its absorption cross section via directed flow
• First measurement of ${\mathrm{D}}_{s1}(1^{+})(2536{)}^{+}$ and ${\mathrm{D}}_{s2}^{\ast }(2^{+})(2573{)}^{+}$ production in proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s}=13$ TeV at the LHC