{
  "abstract": "Light nuclei such as deuterons are produced abundantly in high-energy proton-proton and nuclear collisions despite their tiny binding energies. Their production mechanism remains unresolved, as both nucleon coalescence and statistical thermal models reproduce inclusive LHC yields. We propose a direct invariant-mass observable that discriminates between these scenarios using the long-lived $Λ(1520) \\to {\\rm pK}$ resonance. If decay protons coalesce into deuterons, the produced nuclei remain correlated with the kaon, allowing the resonance peak to be reconstructed experimentally through proxy masses, $M_{\\rm (d/2)K}$, formed from kaons and half the deuteron four-momentum. Using Thermal-FIST and PYTHIA with a deuteron coalescence afterburner, we show that a $M_{\\rm (d/2)K}$ peak emerges only in the coalescence scenario. This observable provides a direct experimental probe of resonance-fed deuteron production and of late-stage coalescence dynamics in high-energy collisions.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [],
  "article_type": "Journal reference: Phys. Lett. B 883 (2026) 141119",
  "arxiv": "2606.10668",
  "author_total": 2,
  "authors": [
    {
      "name": "Sushanta Tripathy"
    },
    {
      "name": "Peter Christiansen"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/crvdtx2sekmtg.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.48550/arxiv.2606.10668",
  "fulltext_url": null,
  "id": "crvdtx2sekmtg",
  "issns": [],
  "landing_url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.10668",
  "language": null,
  "licence": "CC-BY-4.0",
  "licence_label": "CC BY 4.0",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": "CC0-1.0",
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "arxiv",
      "hep-ex"
    ],
    [
      "arxiv",
      "hep-ph"
    ],
    [
      "arxiv",
      "nucl-ex"
    ],
    [
      "arxiv",
      "nucl-th"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": null,
  "pdf_url": "https://arxiv.org/pdf/2606.10668",
  "pmcid": null,
  "pmid": null,
  "published": "2026-10-29",
  "publisher": null,
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/crvdtx2sekmtg.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-11-02T12:21:14Z",
      "native_id": "2606.10668",
      "source": "arxiv",
      "url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.10668"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "physics",
      "origin": "arxiv:hep-ex",
      "subfield": "high-energy"
    },
    {
      "field": "physics",
      "origin": "arxiv:nucl-ex",
      "subfield": "nuclear"
    }
  ],
  "title": "$Λ$(1520) as a probe of resonance-driven deuteron formation at the LHC",
  "title_text": "Λ(1520) as a probe of resonance-driven deuteron formation at the LHC",
  "type": "preprint",
  "updated_at": "2026-11-05T15:20:35Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/crvdtx2sekmtg",
  "venue": "arXiv",
  "versions": [
    {
      "doi": "10.1016/j.physletb.2026.141119",
      "pid": "8cxa29dm7stqa",
      "relation": "published-as",
      "title": "$\\Lambda$(1520) as a probe of resonance-driven deuteron formation at the LHC",
      "venue": "Physics Letters B"
    }
  ]
}