Evidence of partonic collectivity in OO collisions through the measurement of ϕ, K⁰_S, and Λ elliptic flow

@misc{collaboration2026evidence,
  title = {{Evidence of partonic collectivity in OO collisions through the measurement of $ϕ$, K$^0_\rm S$, and $Λ$ elliptic flow}},
  author = {ALICE Collaboration},
  howpublished = {arXiv},
  year = {2026},
  month = oct,
  doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2610.36237},
  eprint = {2610.36237},
  archivePrefix = {arXiv},
  url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.36237},
  note = {CC BY 4.0},
}

TY  - UNPB
TI  - Evidence of partonic collectivity in OO collisions through the measurement of ϕ, K^0_S, and Λ elliptic flow
AU  - ALICE Collaboration
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/10/26
PB  - arXiv
DO  - 10.48550/arxiv.2610.36237
UR  - https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.36237
AB  - The first measurement of the elliptic-flow coefficient (v_2) of ϕ, K^0_S, and Λ(Λ̅) hadrons performed in OO collisions at √(s_NN)=5.36 TeV with the ALICE detector is presented as a function of transverse momentum (p_T) in central and semi-central collisions. For the ϕ meson, in particular, this is the first measurement of the elliptic flow in a small collision system. At low p_T, a characteristic mass ordering of v_2 is observed, consistent with collective expansion of the system, in which heavier hadrons are shifted to higher p_T by a common velocity field. At intermediate p_T, above 3 GeV/c, a baryon−meson splitting with a 10σ significance emerges, with the Λ(Λ̅) baryon exhibiting larger v_2 values than mesons, while, despite its mass being close to the mass of the Λ, the ϕ follows the K^0_S. The ϕ meson behavior disfavors a purely mass-driven interpretation of the observed patterns and supports the role of hadronization via quark recombination from a collectively flowing partonic medium. These results provide complementary evidence that key signatures of partonic collectivity observed in Pb−Pb collisions persist in light nucleus−nucleus systems.
ER  -