Eur. Phys. J. A (2023) 59: 298
https://doi.org/10.1140/epja/s10050-023-01139-9

Letter

Study of the p–p–K${}^{+}$ and p–p–K${}^{-}$ dynamics using the femtoscopy technique

¹ A.I. Alikhanyan National Science Laboratory (Yerevan Physics Institute) Foundation, Yerevan, Armenia
² AGH University of Science and Technology, Cracow, Poland
³ Bogolyubov Institute for Theoretical Physics, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Kiev, Ukraine
⁴ Department of Physics, Bose Institute, Centre for Astroparticle Physics and Space Science (CAPSS), Kolkata, India
⁵ California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, CA, USA
⁶ Central China Normal University, Wuhan, China
⁷ Centro de Aplicaciones Tecnológicas y Desarrollo Nuclear (CEADEN), Havana, Cuba
⁸ Centro de Investigación y de Estudios Avanzados (CINVESTAV), Mérida and Mexico City, Mexico
⁹ Chicago State University, Chicago, IL, USA
¹⁰ China Institute of Atomic Energy, Beijing, China
¹¹ Chungbuk National University, Cheongju, Republic of Korea
¹² Faculty of Mathematics, Physics and Informatics, Comenius University Bratislava, Bratislava, Slovak Republic
¹³ COMSATS University Islamabad, Islamabad, Pakistan
¹⁴ Creighton University, Omaha, NE, USA
¹⁵ Department of Physics, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, India
¹⁶ Department of Physics, Pusan National University, Pusan, Republic of Korea
¹⁷ Department of Physics, Sejong University, Seoul, Republic of Korea
¹⁸ Department of Physics, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA
¹⁹ Department of Physics, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
²⁰ Department of Physics and Technology, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway
²¹ Dipartimento di Fisica, Università di Pavia, Pavia, Italy
²² Dipartimento di Fisica dell’Università and Sezione INFN, Cagliari, Italy
²³ Dipartimento di Fisica dell’Università and Sezione INFN, Trieste, Italy
²⁴ Dipartimento di Fisica dell’Università and Sezione INFN, Turin, Italy
²⁵ Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia dell’Università and Sezione INFN, Bologna, Italy
²⁶ Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia dell’Università and Sezione INFN, Catania, Italy
²⁷ Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia dell’Università and Sezione INFN, Padua, Italy
²⁸ Dipartimento di Fisica ‘E.R. Caianiello’ dell’Università and Gruppo Collegato INFN, Salerno, Italy
²⁹ Dipartimento DISAT del Politecnico and Sezione INFN, Turin, Italy
³⁰ Dipartimento di Scienze MIFT, Università di Messina, Messina, Italy
³¹ Dipartimento Interateneo di Fisica ‘M. Merlin’ and Sezione INFN, Bari, Italy
³² European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), Geneva, Switzerland
³³ Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering and Naval Architecture, University of Split, Split, Croatia
³⁴ Faculty of Engineering and Science, Western Norway University of Applied Sciences, Bergen, Norway
³⁵ Faculty of Nuclear Sciences and Physical Engineering, Czech Technical University in Prague, Prague, Czech Republic
³⁶ Faculty of Physics, Sofia University, Sofia, Bulgaria
³⁷ Faculty of Science, P.J. Šafárik University, Kosice, Slovak Republic
³⁸ Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies, Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität Frankfurt, Frankfurt, Germany
³⁹ Fudan University, Shanghai, China
⁴⁰ Gangneung-Wonju National University, Gangneung, Republic of Korea
⁴¹ Gauhati University, Department of Physics, Guwahati, India
⁴² Helmholtz-Institut für Strahlen- und Kernphysik, Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn, Bonn, Germany
⁴³ Helsinki Institute of Physics (HIP), Helsinki, Finland
⁴⁴ High Energy Physics Group, Universidad Autónoma de Puebla, Puebla, Mexico
⁴⁵ Horia Hulubei National Institute of Physics and Nuclear Engineering, Bucharest, Romania
⁴⁶ Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IIT), Mumbai, India
⁴⁷ Indian Institute of Technology Indore, Indore, India
⁴⁸ INFN, Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati, Frascati, Italy
⁴⁹ INFN, Sezione di Bari, Bari, Italy
⁵⁰ INFN, Sezione di Bologna, Bologna, Italy
⁵¹ INFN, Sezione di Cagliari, Cagliari, Italy
⁵² INFN, Sezione di Catania, Catania, Italy
⁵³ INFN, Sezione di Padova, Padua, Italy
⁵⁴ INFN, Sezione di Pavia, Pavia, Italy
⁵⁵ INFN, Sezione di Torino, Turin, Italy
⁵⁶ INFN, Sezione di Trieste, Trieste, Italy
⁵⁷ Inha University, Incheon, Republic of Korea
⁵⁸ Institute for Gravitational and Subatomic Physics (GRASP), Utrecht University/Nikhef, Utrecht, The Netherlands
⁵⁹ Institute of Experimental Physics, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Kosice, Slovak Republic
⁶⁰ Institute of Physics, Homi Bhabha National Institute, Bhubaneswar, India
⁶¹ Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague, Czech Republic
⁶² Institute of Space Science (ISS), Bucharest, Romania
⁶³ Institut für Kernphysik, Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität Frankfurt, Frankfurt, Germany
⁶⁴ Instituto de Ciencias Nucleares, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City, Mexico
⁶⁵ Instituto de Física, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), Porto Alegre, Brazil
⁶⁶ Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Instituto de Física, Mexico City, Mexico
⁶⁷ iThemba LABS, National Research Foundation, Somerset West, South Africa
⁶⁸ Jeonbuk National University, Jeonju, Republic of Korea
⁶⁹ Johann-Wolfgang-Goethe Universität Frankfurt Institut für Informatik, Fachbereich Informatik und Mathematik, Frankfurt, Germany
⁷⁰ Korea Institute of Science and Technology Information, Daejeon, Republic of Korea
⁷¹ KTO Karatay University, Konya, Turkey
⁷² Laboratoire de Physique des 2 Infinis, Irène Joliot-Curie, Orsay, France
⁷³ Laboratoire de Physique Subatomique et de Cosmologie, Université Grenoble-Alpes, CNRS-IN2P3, Grenoble, France
⁷⁴ Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, USA
⁷⁵ Division of Particle Physics, Department of Physics, Lund University, Lund, Sweden
⁷⁶ Nagasaki Institute of Applied Science, Nagasaki, Japan
⁷⁷ Nara Women’s University (NWU), Nara, Japan
⁷⁸ Department of Physics, School of Science, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece
⁷⁹ National Centre for Nuclear Research, Warsaw, Poland
⁸⁰ National Institute of Science Education and Research, Homi Bhabha National Institute, Jatni, India
⁸¹ National Nuclear Research Center, Baku, Azerbaijan
⁸² National Research and Innovation Agency-BRIN, Jakarta, Indonesia
⁸³ Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
⁸⁴ Nikhef, National institute for subatomic physics, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
⁸⁵ Nuclear Physics Group, STFC Daresbury Laboratory, Daresbury, UK
⁸⁶ Nuclear Physics Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Husinec-Řež, Czech Republic
⁸⁷ Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN, USA
⁸⁸ Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA
⁸⁹ Physics Department, Faculty of science, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
⁹⁰ Physics Department, Panjab University, Chandigarh, India
⁹¹ Physics Department, University of Jammu, Jammu, India
⁹² Physics Program and International Institute for Sustainability with Knotted Chiral Meta Matter (SKCM2), Hiroshima University, Hiroshima, Japan
⁹³ Physikalisches Institut, Eberhard-Karls-Universität Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
⁹⁴ Physikalisches Institut, Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany
⁹⁵ Physik Department, Technische Universität München, Munich, Germany
⁹⁶ Politecnico di Bari and Sezione INFN, Bari, Italy
⁹⁷ Research Division and ExtreMe Matter Institute EMMI, GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung GmbH, Darmstadt, Germany
⁹⁸ Saga University, Saga, Japan
⁹⁹ Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics, Homi Bhabha National Institute, Kolkata, India
¹⁰⁰ School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK
¹⁰¹ Sección Física, Departamento de Ciencias, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, Lima, Peru
¹⁰² Stefan Meyer Institut für Subatomare Physik (SMI), Vienna, Austria
¹⁰³ SUBATECH, IMT Atlantique, CNRS-IN2P3, Nantes Université, Nantes, France
¹⁰⁴ Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon City, Republic of Korea
¹⁰⁵ Suranaree University of Technology, Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand
¹⁰⁶ Technical University of Košice, Kosice, Slovak Republic
¹⁰⁷ The Henryk Niewodniczanski Institute of Nuclear Physics, Polish Academy of Sciences, Cracow, Poland
¹⁰⁸ The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA
¹⁰⁹ Universidad Autónoma de Sinaloa, Culiacán, Mexico
¹¹⁰ Universidade de São Paulo (USP), São Paulo, Brazil
¹¹¹ Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP), Campinas, Brazil
¹¹² Universidade Federal do ABC, Santo Andre, Brazil
¹¹³ University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa
¹¹⁴ University of Houston, Houston, TX, USA
¹¹⁵ University of Jyväskylä, Jyvaskyla, Finland
¹¹⁶ University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, USA
¹¹⁷ University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK
¹¹⁸ University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China
¹¹⁹ University of South-Eastern Norway, Kongsberg, Norway
¹²⁰ University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, USA
¹²¹ University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
¹²² University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
¹²³ University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba, Japan
¹²⁴ University Politehnica of Bucharest, Bucharest, Romania
¹²⁵ CNRS/IN2P3, LPC, Université Clermont Auvergne, Clermont-Ferrand, France
¹²⁶ CNRS/IN2P3, Institut de Physique des 2 Infinis de Lyon, Université de Lyon, Lyon, France
¹²⁷ CNRS, IPHC UMR 7178, Université de Strasbourg, 67000, Strasbourg, France
¹²⁸ Départment de Physique Nucléaire (DPhN), IRFU, Université Paris-Saclay Centre d’Etudes de Saclay (CEA), Saclay, France
¹²⁹ Università degli Studi di Foggia, Foggia, Italy
¹³⁰ Università del Piemonte Orientale, Vercelli, Italy
¹³¹ Università di Brescia, Brescia, Italy
¹³² Variable Energy Cyclotron Centre, Homi Bhabha National Institute, Kolkata, India
¹³³ Warsaw University of Technology, Warsaw, Poland
¹³⁴ Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, USA
¹³⁵ Institut für Kernphysik, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster, Münster, Germany
¹³⁶ Wigner Research Centre for Physics, Budapest, Hungary
¹³⁷ Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA
¹³⁸ Yonsei University, Seoul, Republic of Korea
¹³⁹ Zentrum für Technologie und Transfer (ZTT), Worms, Germany
¹⁴⁰ Affiliated with an Institute Covered by a Cooperation Agreement with CERN, Geneva, Switzerland
¹⁴¹ Affiliated with an International Laboratory Covered by a Cooperation Agreement with CERN, Geneva, Switzerland
¹⁴² Max-Planck-Institut für Physik, Munich, Germany
¹⁴³ Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development (ENEA), Bologna, Italy
¹⁴⁴ Department of Applied Physics, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, India
¹⁴⁵ Institute of Theoretical Physics, University of Wroclaw, Wrocław, Poland
¹⁴⁶ An Institution Covered by a Cooperation Agreement with CERN, Geneva, Switzerland
¹⁴⁷ CERN, 1211, Geneva 23, Switzerland

^g alice-publications@cern.ch

Received: 28 April 2023
Accepted: 21 September 2023
Published online: 18 December 2023

Abstract

The interactions of kaons (K) and antikaons ($\overline{\mathrm{K}}$) with few nucleons (N) were studied so far using kaonic atom data and measurements of kaon production and interaction yields in nuclei. Some details of the three-body KNN and $\overline{\mathrm{K}}$NN dynamics are still not well understood, mainly due to the overlap with multi-nucleon interactions in nuclei. An alternative method to probe the dynamics of three-body systems with kaons is to study the final state interaction within triplet of particles emitted in pp collisions at the Large Hadron Collider, which are free from effects due to the presence of bound nucleons. This Letter reports the first femtoscopic study of p–p–K${}^{+}$ and p–p–K${}^{-}$ correlations measured in high-multiplicity pp collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV by the ALICE Collaboration. The analysis shows that the measured p–p–K${}^{+}$ and p–p–K${}^{-}$ correlation functions can be interpreted in terms of pairwise interactions in the triplets, indicating that the dynamics of such systems is dominated by the two-body interactions without significant contributions from three-body effects or bound states.