Background: The development of SU(3) chiral effective-field theory (EFT) has opened the way to a systematic exploration of three-baryon forces (3BFs), a key ingredient in hypernuclear and dense matter physics. However, $\mathrm{\Xi }NN$ 3BF based on SU(3) chiral EFT has not been studied until now.

Purpose: We apply SU(3) chiral EFT to derive $\mathrm{\Xi }NN$ potentials in momentum space. Then, we investigate how the $\mathrm{\Xi }NN$ 3BF affects the correlation function of deuteron–${\mathrm{\Xi }}^{-}$ pair created through heavy-ion collisions.

Methods: To reduce the number of low-energy constants involved in the $\mathrm{\Xi }NN$ potentials, we employ the decuplet saturation approximation, by which only two of them remain unconstrained. The deuteron–${\mathrm{\Xi }}^{-}$ scattering is treated as an effective two-body problem with the $\mathrm{\Xi }NN$ 3BF incorporated into the potential between the deuteron and ${\mathrm{\Xi }}^{-}$.

Results: We found that the effect of the $\mathrm{\Xi }NN$ 3BF on the deuteron–${\mathrm{\Xi }}^{-}$ correlation function is at most about 4%. This small effect is not primarily due to the loosely bound nature of the deuteron. Instead, this is because the deuteron and ${\mathrm{\Xi }}^{-}$ interact with each other mainly at low momentum, corresponding to peripheral scattering, where the influence of the $\mathrm{\Xi }NN$ 3BF is limited.

Conclusions: Since the correlation function shows limited sensitivity to the short-range 3BF, complementary approaches may be necessary.

Close

PrevNext

View figure in article

• Effective field theory
• Hadron production
• Hadron-hadron interactions
• Nuclear forces
• Particle interactions
• Relativistic heavy-ion collisions