New results of light (anti-)(hyper-)nuclei production and hypertriton lifetime in Pb–Pb collisions at the LHC

Abstract

The high-statistics and high-quality data samples in Pb–Pb collisions at sNN=5.02TeV collected by the ALICE Collaboration and the excellent tracking and particle identification capabilities of the Inner Tracking System, the Time-Projection Chamber and the Time-of-Flight detector allow for the detection of rarely produced light (anti-)(hyper-)nuclei. The first (anti-)triton pT spectra in Pb–Pb at the LHC as well as the first (anti-)4He pT spectra are presented. Furthermore, the (anti-)3He elliptic flow is discussed. Both the nuclei yields and elliptic flow are compared with theoretical predictions to provide insight into the production mechanism of light nuclei in heavy-ion collisions. In addition, the latest and most precise measurement of the hypertriton lifetime so far is presented and compared to theoretical calculations aiming at shedding light on the hypertriton lifetime puzzle.