%0 Chart or Table
%A ALICE Collaboration
%T Exploring the strong interaction of three-body systems at the LHC
%M GSI-2025-00168
%D 2024
%Z Journal Article GSI record: GSI-2025-00164
%X In this work K<sup>+</sup>-d and p-d femtoscopic correlations measured in high multipicity proton-proton (pp) collisions at √s=13 TeV by the ALICE Collaboration at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) are presented. Deuterons are atomic nuclei composed of a neutron and a proton held together by the strong interaction. Unbound ensembles composed of a deuteron and a third nucleon have been investigated in the past using scattering experiments and they constitute a fundamental reference in nuclear physics to constrain nuclear interactions and the properties of nuclei. In this work K<sup>+</sup>-d and p-d femtoscopic correlations measured by the ALICE Collaboration in proton-proton (pp) collisions at √s=13 TeV at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) are presented. It is demonstrated that correlations in momentum space between deuterons and kaons or protons allow us to study three-hadron systems at distances comparable with the proton radius. The analysis of the K<sup>+</sup>-d correlation shows that the relative distances at which deuterons and proton/kaons are produced are around 2 fm. The analysis of the p-d correlation shows that only a full three-body calculation that accounts for the internal structure of the deuteron can explain the data. In particular, the sensitivity of the observable to the short-range part of the interaction is demonstrated. These results indicate that correlations involving light nuclei in pp collisions at the LHC will also provide access to any three-body systems in the strange and charm sectors.
%F PUB:(DE-HGF)32
%9 Dataset
%R 10.17182/HEPDATA.153726
%U https://repository.gsi.de/record/356785