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HK: Fachverband Physik der Hadronen und Kerne
HK 32: Heavy-Ion Collisions and QCD Phases V
HK 32.1: Group Report
Thursday, March 19, 2026, 13:45–14:15, PHIL C 601
Investigating the properties of (anti-)hypernuclei with the ALICE detector at the LHC — •Carolina Jauch for the ALICE Germany collaboration — Universität Heidelberg
Among the thousands of particles produced in high energy heavy-ion collisions at the LHC, light (anti-)hypernuclei are of particular interest. Studying their internal structure provides a unique opportunity to probe the strong interaction between hyperons and nucleons. The lightest known (anti-)hypernucleus, the (anti-)hypertriton, is a bound state of a proton, a neutron, and a Λ hyperon. Several groundbreaking results on its production and properties were reported by ALICE in recent years. The upgraded ALICE detector and the large data sample collected during the ongoing LHC Run 3 enable more precise measurements and the study of rare observables.
This contribution presents the latest ALICE results on (anti-)hypernuclei and outlines prospects for future investigations. In particular, the first measurement of the anti-hypertriton transverse momentum spectrum in pp collisions allows to test different assumptions on its wavefunction. Moreover, the first reconstruction of the (anti-)hypertriton three-body decay in ALICE pp collisions and the measurement of its relative branching ratio, R3, offer insight into its internal structure. The precision of the recently published measurement of heavier (anti-)hypernuclei, the hyperhydrogen-4 and hyperhelium-4, including the very first observation of the antihyperhelium-4, can be improved using the Run 3 heavy-ion data sample, and a more detailed study of their properties will be feasible.
Keywords: ALICE, hypernuclei