Probing the internal structures of pΩ and ΩΩ with their production at the Large Hadron Collider

Abstract

The strange dibaryons pΩ (S25) and ΩΩ (S01) are likely bound, existing either in molecular states like the deuteron or as more exotic compact six-quark states. Here, we investigate the production of these two dibaryons in Pb+Pb collisions at sNN=2.76 TeV at the CERN Large Hadron Collider within a covariant coalescence model, which employs a blast-wave-like parametrization for the phase-space configurations of constituent particles at freeze-out. For the molecular states, the pΩ and ΩΩ are produced via p−Ω and Ω−Ω coalescence, respectively, while for the six-quark states, they are formed through uudsss and ssssss coalescence. We find that the yield ratios NpΩ/NΩ and NΩΩ/NΩ have a distinct centrality dependence between the molecular and multiquark states, thus offering a promising way for distinguishing the two states. Our results suggest that the measurements of pΩ and ΩΩ production in relativistic heavy-ion collisions can shed light on their internal structures. Published by the American Physical Society 2024