Relativistic kinetic approach to light nuclei production in high-energy nuclear collisions

Abstract

Understanding the production mechanism of light (anti-)nuclei in high-energy nuclear collisions and cosmic rays has been a long-standing problem in nuclear physics. In the present study, we develop a stochastic method to solve the relativistic kinetic equations for light nuclei production from many-body reactions with the inclusion of their finite sizes. The present approach gives an excellent description of the deuteron and helium-3 data from central Au+Au (Pb+Pb) collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}$ $=$ $200~\rm GeV$ ($2.76~\rm TeV$). It can also naturally explain their suppressed production in $pp$ collisions at 7 TeV as a result of their finite sizes.