#StudentSeminar: Femtoscopy: probing interactions through two-particle correlations

por Amador Garcia Lorenzo (IFIC)

martes 13 oct. 2026 15:00 → 16:30 Europe/Madrid

1001-Primera-1-1-1 - Paterna. Seminario (Universe)

At small relative momenta, correlations between particles produced in a collision carry information about both their interactions and the size of the region from which they are emitted. Femtoscopy uses these correlations to study distances of a few femtometres and to access interactions that are difficult to investigate in conventional scattering experiments. I will introduce the method starting from basic quantum mechanics, explaining how quantum statistics, the two-particle wave function and the distribution of emission points enter the correlation function.

I will then present our work on charged particles, where the long-range Coulomb force must be treated together with the short-range strong interaction. I will discuss the approximations commonly used in these calculations, what information is supplied by the scattering amplitude and when the wave function at short distances also matters. As an application, I will show how the resonances of beryllium-8 appear in alpha–alpha correlations and compare our calculations with experimental data. This example will also illustrate how the size of the emitting source affects the sensitivity to the interaction.