Three-particle correlations with respect to strangeness in pp colllisions

Sammanfattning

High-energy proton-proton collisions such as the ones happening at the LHC can result in the formation of the QGP, a state of matter similar to the early Universe's. One property of the QGP is strangeness enhancement, leading to the formation of strange flavoured particles such as $\Xi$, $\Lambda$ or $K$. The aim of this thesis is to study the production mechanism of a strangeness-balanced triplet ($\Xi^-K^+K^+$) through its angular correlation functions and balance function. This is done through the use of Monte-Carlo generated data using the PYTHIA software, as well as real data from the CERN ALICE experiment. Data is then analysed using the ROOT framework in both cases. Final results provide us with a negative ridge along the values where the difference in azimuthal angle and pseudorapidity are equal between the $\Xi^-$ and both kaons. This result can be explained by uncorrelated remnants from two-particle correlations that have not been sufficiently corrected through mixed events. A biased simulation also provides us with an expected production mechanism favouring the production of the particles in the triplets close to each other in angular coordinates, raising the need for further analysis to improve event mixing corrections.