%0 Chart or Table
%A ALICE Collaboration
%T Investigating the nature of the K<sup>*</sup><sub>0</sub>(700) state with π<sup>±</sup>K<sup>0</sup><sub>S</sub> correlations at the LHC
%M GSI-2025-00245
%D 2024
%Z Journal Article GSI record: GSI-2025-00244
%X Investigating the nature of the K<sup>*</sup><sub>0</sub>(700) state with π<sup>±</sup> K<sup>0</sup><sub>S</sub> correlations at the LHC. - The first measurements of femtoscopic correlations with the particle pair combinations π<sup>±</sup> K<sup>0</sup><sub>S</sub> in pp collisions at √s=13 TeV at the Large Hadron Collider are reported by the ALICE experiment. Using the femtoscopic approach, it is shown that it is possible to study the elusive K<sup>*</sup><sub>0</sub>(700) particle that has been considered a tetraquark candidate for over forty years. Boson source parameters and final-state interaction parameters are extracted by fitting a model assuming a Gaussian source to the experimentally measured two-particle correlation functions. The final-state interaction is modeled through a resonant scattering amplitude, defined in terms of a mass and a coupling parameter, decaying into a π<sup>±</sup>K<sup>0</sup><sub>S</sub> pair. The extracted mass and Breit-Wigner width, derived from the coupling parameter, of the final-state interaction are found to be consistent with previous measurements of the K<sup>*</sup><sub>0</sub>(700). The small value and increasing behavior of the correlation strength with increasing source size support the hypothesis that the K<sup>*</sup><sub>0</sub>(700) is a four-quark state, i.e. a tetraquark state. This latter trend is also confirmed via a simple geometric model that assumes a tetraquark structure of the K<sup>*</sup><sub>0</sub>(700) resonance.
%F PUB:(DE-HGF)32
%9 Dataset
%R 10.17182/HEPDATA.153749
%U https://repository.gsi.de/record/356862