Measurements of Chemical Potentials in Pb-Pb Collisions at sNN =5.02 TeV

Abstract

This Letter presents the most precise measurement to date of the matter-antimatter imbalance at midrapidity in Pb-Pb collisions at a center-of-mass energy per nucleon pair s NN = 5.02 TeV . Using the Statistical Hadronization framework, it is possible to obtain the value of the electric charge and baryon chemical potentials, μ Q = − 0.18 ± 0.90 MeV and μ B = 0.71 ± 0.45 MeV , with unprecedented precision. A centrality-differential study of the antiparticle-to-particle yield ratios of charged pions, protons, Ω baryons, and light (hyper)nuclei is performed. These results indicate that the system created in Pb-Pb collisions at the LHC is on average baryon-free and electrically neutral at midrapidity. © 2024 CERN, for the ALICE Collaboration 2024 CERN