Probing Strangeness Production in Proton-Proton Collisions with Three-Particle Correlations

Abstract: Strangeness production in small systems such as proton-proton collisions is here investigated through the use of three-particle correlations in the momentum-space coordinates η and ϕ. This method is used in order to investigate possible correlation between conservation of both strangeness and baryon number, such that the particles chosen are Λ¯pK+ and the respective charge conjugates, where Λ is a strange baryon, p¯ balances: the Balance Function and the comparative restriction of relative positions for pairs of particles within given triplets. The development of normalisation, visualisation and triggering methods are tailored to the problem. The data used is produced by two implementations of the Lund String Model within the Monte Carlo event generator PYTHIA8. Such implementations are the default LSM as well as the string junctions method. The results show a tendency for balancing baryon number and strangeness to be localised nearby, most often close to the strange baryon as well, both in azimuthal angle and pseudorapidity. This signal is less localised within the junction model, which is believed to be more representative of the future phenomenological studies it is intended to compare this research to.