https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-021-09304-4
Regular Article - Experimental Physics
Production of pions, kaons, (anti-)protons and 
mesons in Xe–Xe collisions at 
= 5.44 TeV
1
A.I. Alikhanyan National Science Laboratory (Yerevan Physics Institute) Foundation, Yerevan, Armenia
2
AGH University of Science and Technology, Kraków, Poland
3
Bogolyubov Institute for Theoretical Physics, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Kiev, Ukraine
4
Department of Physics and Centre for Astroparticle Physics and Space Science (CAPSS), Bose Institute, Kolkata, India
5
Budker Institute for Nuclear Physics, Novosibirsk, Russia
6
California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, CA, USA
7
Central China Normal University, Wuhan, China
8
Centro de Aplicaciones Tecnológicas y Desarrollo Nuclear (CEADEN), Havana, Cuba
9
Centro de Investigación y de Estudios Avanzados (CINVESTAV), Mexico City and Mérida, Mexico
10
Chicago State University, Chicago, IL, USA
11
China Institute of Atomic Energy, Beijing, China
12
Chungbuk National University, Cheongju, Republic of Korea
13
Comenius University Bratislava, Faculty of Mathematics, Physics and Informatics, Bratislava, Slovakia
14
COMSATS University Islamabad, Islamabad, Pakistan
15
Creighton University, Omaha, NE, USA
16
Department of Physics, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, India
17
Department of Physics, Pusan National University, Pusan, Republic of Korea
18
Department of Physics, Sejong University, Seoul, Republic of Korea
19
Department of Physics, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA
20
Department of Physics, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
21
Department of Physics and Technology, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway
22
Dipartimento di Fisica dell’Università ’La Sapienza’ and Sezione INFN, Rome, Italy
23
Dipartimento di Fisica dell’Università and Sezione INFN, Cagliari, Italy
24
Dipartimento di Fisica dell’Università and Sezione INFN, Trieste, Italy
25
Dipartimento di Fisica dell’Università and Sezione INFN, Turin, Italy
26
Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia dell’Università and Sezione INFN, Bologna, Italy
27
Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia dell’Università and Sezione INFN, Catania, Italy
28
Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia dell’Università and Sezione INFN, Padua, Italy
29
Dipartimento di Fisica e Nucleare e Teorica, Università di Pavia and Sezione INFN, Pavia, Italy
30
Dipartimento di Fisica ‘E.R. Caianiello’ dell’Università and Gruppo Collegato INFN, Salerno, Italy
31
Dipartimento DISAT del Politecnico and Sezione INFN, Turin, Italy
32
Dipartimento di Scienze e Innovazione Tecnologica dell’Università del Piemonte Orientale and INFN Sezione di Torino, Alessandria, Italy
33
Dipartimento di Scienze MIFT, Università di Messina, Messina, Italy
34
Dipartimento Interateneo di Fisica ‘M. Merlin’ and Sezione INFN, Bari, Italy
35
European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), Geneva, Switzerland
36
Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering and Naval Architecture, University of Split, Split, Croatia
37
Faculty of Engineering and Science, Western Norway University of Applied Sciences, Bergen, Norway
38
Faculty of Nuclear Sciences and Physical Engineering, Czech Technical University in Prague, Prague, Czech Republic
39
Faculty of Science, P.J. Šafárik University, Košice, Slovakia
40
Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies, Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität Frankfurt, Frankfurt, Germany
41
Fudan University, Shanghai, China
42
Gangneung-Wonju National University, Gangneung, Republic of Korea
43
Department of Physics, Gauhati University, Guwahati, India
44
Helmholtz-Institut für Strahlen- und Kernphysik, Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn, Bonn, Germany
45
Helsinki Institute of Physics (HIP), Helsinki, Finland
46
High Energy Physics Group, Universidad Autónoma de Puebla, Puebla, Mexico
47
Hiroshima University, Hiroshima, Japan
48
Hochschule Worms, Zentrum für Technologietransfer und Telekommunikation (ZTT), Worms, Germany
49
Horia Hulubei National Institute of Physics and Nuclear Engineering, Bucharest, Romania
50
Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IIT), Mumbai, India
51
Indian Institute of Technology Indore, Indore, India
52
Indonesian Institute of Sciences, Jakarta, Indonesia
53
INFN, Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati, Frascati, Italy
54
INFN, Sezione di Bari, Bari, Italy
55
INFN, Sezione di Bologna, Bologna, Italy
56
INFN, Sezione di Cagliari, Cagliari, Italy
57
INFN, Sezione di Catania, Catania, Italy
58
INFN, Sezione di Padova, Padua, Italy
59
INFN, Sezione di Roma, Rome, Italy
60
INFN, Sezione di Torino, Turin, Italy
61
INFN, Sezione di Trieste, Trieste, Italy
62
Inha University, Incheon, Republic of Korea
63
Institute for Gravitational and Subatomic Physics (GRASP), Utrecht University/Nikhef, Utrecht, The Netherlands
64
Institute for Nuclear Research, Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia
65
Institute of Experimental Physics, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Košice, Slovakia
66
Institute of Physics, Homi Bhabha National Institute, Bhubaneswar, India
67
Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague, Czech Republic
68
Institute of Space Science (ISS), Bucharest, Romania
69
Institut für Kernphysik, Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität Frankfurt, Frankfurt, Germany
70
Instituto de Ciencias Nucleares, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City, Mexico
71
Instituto de Física, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), Porto Alegre, Brazil
72
Instituto de Física, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City, Mexico
73
iThemba LABS, National Research Foundation, Somerset West, South Africa
74
Jeonbuk National University, Jeonju, Republic of Korea
75
Johann-Wolfgang-Goethe Universität Frankfurt Institut für Informatik, Fachbereich Informatik und Mathematik, Frankfurt, Germany
76
Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR), Dubna, Russia
77
Korea Institute of Science and Technology Information, Daejeon, Republic of Korea
78
KTO Karatay University, Konya, Turkey
79
Laboratoire de Physique des 2 Infinis, Irène Joliot-Curie, Orsay, France
80
Laboratoire de Physique Subatomique et de Cosmologie, Université Grenoble-Alpes, CNRS-IN2P3, Grenoble, France
81
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, USA
82
Division of Particle Physics, Department of Physics, Lund University, Lund, Sweden
83
Moscow Institute for Physics and Technology, Moscow, Russia
84
Nagasaki Institute of Applied Science, Nagasaki, Japan
85
Nara Women’s University (NWU), Nara, Japan
86
Department of Physics, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, School of Science, Athens, Greece
87
National Centre for Nuclear Research, Warsaw, Poland
88
National Institute of Science Education and Research, Homi Bhabha National Institute, Jatni, India
89
National Nuclear Research Center, Baku, Azerbaijan
90
National Research Centre Kurchatov Institute, Moscow, Russia
91
Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
92
Nikhef, National institute for subatomic physics, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
93
NRC Kurchatov Institute IHEP, Protvino, Russia
94
NRC «Kurchatov»Institute-ITEP, Moscow, Russia
95
NRNU Moscow Engineering Physics Institute, Moscow, Russia
96
Nuclear Physics Group, STFC Daresbury Laboratory, Daresbury, UK
97
Nuclear Physics Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Řež u Prahy, Czech Republic
98
Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN, USA
99
Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA
100
Petersburg Nuclear Physics Institute, Gatchina, Russia
101
Physics Department, Faculty of science, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
102
Physics Department, Panjab University, Chandigarh, India
103
Physics Department, University of Jammu, Jammu, India
104
Physics Department, University of Rajasthan, Jaipur, India
105
Physikalisches Institut, Eberhard-Karls-Universität Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
106
Physikalisches Institut, Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany
107
Physik Department, Technische Universität München, Munich, Germany
108
PINSTECH, Islamabad, Pakistan
109
Politecnico di Bari and Sezione INFN, Bari, Italy
110
Research Division and ExtreMe Matter Institute EMMI, GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung GmbH, Darmstadt, Germany
111
Rudjer Bošković Institute, Zagreb, Croatia
112
Russian Federal Nuclear Center (VNIIEF), Sarov, Russia
113
Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics, Homi Bhabha National Institute, Kolkata, India
114
School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK
115
Sección Física, Departamento de Ciencias, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, Lima, Peru
116
St. Petersburg State University, St. Petersburg, Russia
117
Stefan Meyer Institut für Subatomare Physik (SMI), Vienna, Austria
118
SUBATECH, IMT Atlantique, Université de Nantes, CNRS-IN2P3, Nantes, France
119
Suranaree University of Technology, Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand
120
Technical University of Košice, Košice, Slovakia
121
The Henryk Niewodniczanski Institute of Nuclear Physics, Polish Academy of Sciences, Kraków, Poland
122
The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA
123
Universidad Autónoma de Sinaloa, Culiacán, Mexico
124
Universidade de São Paulo (USP), São Paulo, Brazil
125
Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP), Campinas, Brazil
126
Universidade Federal do ABC, Santo Andre, Brazil
127
University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa
128
University of Houston, Houston, TX, USA
129
University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä, Finland
130
University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK
131
University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China
132
University of South-Eastern Norway, Tonsberg, Norway
133
University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, USA
134
University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
135
University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
136
University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba, Japan
137
Université Clermont Auvergne, CNRS/IN2P3, LPC, Clermont-Ferrand, France
138
Institut de Physique des 2 Infinis de Lyon, Université de Lyon, CNRS/IN2P3, Lyon, France
139
Université de Strasbourg, CNRS, IPHC UMR 7178, 67000, Strasbourg, France
140
Départment de Physique Nucléaire (DPhN), Université Paris-Saclay Centre d’Etudes de Saclay (CEA), IRFU, Saclay, France
141
Università degli Studi di Foggia, Foggia, Italy
142
Università di Brescia and Sezione INFN, Brescia, Italy
143
Variable Energy Cyclotron Centre, Homi Bhabha National Institute, Kolkata, India
144
Warsaw University of Technology, Warsaw, Poland
145
Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, USA
146
Institut für Kernphysik, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster, Münster, Germany
147
Wigner Research Centre for Physics, Budapest, Hungary
148
Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA
149
Yonsei University, Seoul, Republic of Korea
150
Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development (ENEA), Bologna, Italy
151
Dipartimento DET del Politecnico di Torino, Turin, Italy
152
M.V. Lomonosov Moscow State University, D.V. Skobeltsyn Institute of Nuclear Physics, Moscow, Russia
153
Institute of Theoretical Physics, University of Wroclaw, Wroclaw, Poland
154
CERN, 1211, Geneva 23, Switzerland
Received:
27
January
2021
Accepted:
31
May
2021
Published online:
6
July
2021
The first measurement of the production of pions, kaons, (anti-)protons and mesons at midrapidity in Xe–Xe collisions at 
is presented. Transverse momentum (
) spectra and -integrated yields are extracted in several centrality intervals bridging from p–Pb to mid-central Pb–Pb collisions in terms of final-state multiplicity. The study of Xe–Xe and Pb–Pb collisions allows systems at similar charged-particle multiplicities but with different initial geometrical eccentricities to be investigated. A detailed comparison of the spectral shapes in the two systems reveals an opposite behaviour for radial and elliptic flow. In particular, this study shows that the radial flow does not depend on the colliding system when compared at similar charged-particle multiplicity. In terms of hadron chemistry, the previously observed smooth evolution of particle ratios with multiplicity from small to large collision systems is also found to hold in Xe–Xe. In addition, our results confirm that two remarkable features of particle production at LHC energies are also valid in the collision of medium-sized nuclei: the lower proton-to-pion ratio with respect to the thermal model expectations and the increase of the -to-pion ratio with increasing final-state multiplicity.
© The Author(s) 2021
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