Probing coalescence of light nuclei via femtoscopy and azimuthal anisotropies

Abstract

The production mechanism of light nuclei in heavy-ion collisions is vital to understanding the intricate details of nucleon-nucleon interactions. The coalescence of nucleons is a well-known mechanism that attempts to explain the production mechanism of these light clusters. This work investigates the formation mechanism of these nucleon clusters with a combination of coalescence and femtoscopy of nucleons and nuclei. It is achieved by appending a coalescence and correlation afterburner (CRAB) to the SMASH transport model. To have a proper view of the anisotropy of light nuclei clusters, a mean-field approach to SMASH is applied. The anisotropic coefficients of various light nuclei clusters are calculated and compared to experimental measurements. To incorporate hydrodynamics into the picture, the anisotropic measurements are completed in a hybrid SMASH+vHLLE mode. In both approaches, the femtoscopy of nucleons and light nuclei is performed, reported with CRAB, and compared to the latest experimental measurements. An insight into cluster formation time is drawn by extracting the emission source size with the Lednický-Lyuboshits model. © 2025 American Physical Society.