Speaker
Description
Measurements in pp and p-Pb collisions have revealed that these small collision systems exhibit several features traditionally attributed to heavy-ion collisions, including the smooth increase of the strange hadron yields with the collision multiplicity (strangeness enhancement). However, the microscopic origin of this phenomenon in small systems remains an open question. In particular, the relative contributions of soft (bulk-like particle production) and hard processes (related to parton fragmentation and jet production) to strangeness enhancement in small collision systems are not yet fully constrained. Angular correlations between a charged hadron and an associated strange hadron provide a differential tool to probe different strangeness production mechanisms and to study the interplay between bulk and hard particle production.
In this contribution, we present the first measurement of two-particle angular correlations involving identified strange hadrons as a function of multiplicity in pp collisions at 5.36 TeV. The results are compared with state-of-the-art model predictions, providing new insights into the interplay between hard and soft QCD processes governing strangeness production in small collision systems.