Lambda-p femtoscopy in collisions of Ar+KCl at 1.76 AGeV

Abstract

Results on $Λ$p femtoscopy are reported at the lowest energy so far. At a beam energy of 1.76A~GeV, the reaction Ar+KCl was studied with the High Acceptance Di-Electron Spectrometer (HADES) at SIS18/GSI. A high-statistics and high-purity $Λ$ sample was collected, allowing for the investigation of $Λ$ p correlations at small relative momenta. The experimental correlation function is compared to corresponding model calculations allowing the determination of the space-time extent of the $Λ$p emission source. The $Λ$p source radius is found slightly smaller than the pp correlation radius for a similar collis ion system. The present $Λ$p radius is significantly smaller than that found for Au+Au/Pb+Pb collisio ns in the AGS, SPS and RHIC energy domains, but larger than that observed for electroproduction from He. Taking into account all available data, we find the $Λ$p source radius to increase almost linearly with the number of participants to the power of one-third.

5 pages, 3 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. C