Production of Light Nuclei in Au+Au Collisions with the STAR BES-II Program

Institute of Particle Physics and Key Laboratory of Quark & Lepton Physics (MOE), Central China Normal University, Wuhan, 430079, China.

^* e-mail: jyx@mails.ccnu.edu.cn

Published online: 27 January 2025

Abstract

The yields and ratios of light nuclei in heavy-ion collisions offer a method to distinguish between the thermal and coalescence models. Ratios such as N_t × N_P / N_d² and N_3He × N_p / N_d² are suggested as potential probes to investigate critical phenomena within the QCD phase diagram. The significantly larger datasets from STAR BES-II compared to BES-I, combined with enhanced detector capabilities, allow for more precise measurements. In this proceeding, we present the centrality and energy dependence of transverse momentum spectra and particle yields of (anti-)proton, (anti-)deuteron, and ³He at BES-II energies (√s_NN = 7.7 — 27 GeV), as well as the light nuclei to proton yield ratios and coalescence parameters (B2 (d) and B3 (³ He)).