Exploration of particle production mechanisms via angular correlations of π, K, p, Λ with ALICE in pp collisions at √S = 7 TeV

Abstract

Two-particle correlations as a function of Δη and Δφ are used in many colliding systems to study a wide range of physical phenomena. Examples include the collective behavior of the quark-gluon plasma medium, jets, quantum statistics or Coulomb effects, conservation laws, and resonance decays. In this work, measurements of the correlations of identified particles and their antiparticles (for π, K, p, Λ) are reported in pp collisions at √s = 7 TeV at low transverse momenta. The analysis reveals differences in particle production between baryons and mesons. The correlation functions for mesons exhibit the expected peak dominated by the effects of mini-jet fragmentation and are reproduced well by general purpose Monte Carlo generators. For baryon pairs where both particles have the same baryon number, an anti-correlation structure is observed instead of a peak centered at (Δη, Δφ) = (0, 0); an observation which presents a challenge to models typically used to describe pp data (PYTHIA, PHOJET). This baryon anti-correlation is further interpreted in the context of baryon production mechanisms in the fragmentation processes.