Kaon-deuteron correlation function from an effective field theory approach

Abstract

We present a study of femtoscopic correlation functions for $K^{-}d$ and $K^{+}d$ pairs, and compare our results with recent measurements by the ALICE Collaboration in both Pb-Pb and high-multiplicity $pp$ collisions. The kaon-deuteron wave functions are derived from scattering amplitudes using a unitarized chiral effective theory model describing the elementary interactions of $K^{\pm}$ mesons with nucleons. We then evaluate the $K^{\pm}d$ strong scattering amplitudes by solving the Faddeev equations within two distinct frameworks: the Impulse Approximation and the Fixed Center Approximation, which accounts for multiple scatterings. We also incorporate the long-range Coulomb effects between the kaon and the deuteron. We show that the $K^{-}d$ correlation function exhibits large sensitivity to both the size of the emitting source and the relative momentum of the pair, being heavily influenced by rescattering processes. In contrast, the $K^{+}d$ correlation function is dominated by the weakly repulsive $K^{+}N$ interaction, showing deviations from purely Coulombic behavior only at small emission source sizes. Our predictions are in agreement with the ALICE experimental data, and also with the energy-shift and width of the $1s$ level of the kaonic deuterium preliminary results from the SIDDHARTA 2 Collaboration.