Hyperon-nucleon femtoscopy, nuclear production and bearing on astrophysics

Abstract

The presence of hyperons in the inner core of neutron stars is still an open issue in astrophysics and the so-called hyperon puzzle is far away from being solved. A complete understanding of how the interaction between hyperons and nucleons, at the level of two- and three-body, behaves in vacuum and at finite baryon density is a key requirement in order to build a realistic Equation of State for matter inside the core of neutron stars. Recently, measurements of hadron-hadron correlation functions with the femtoscopy technique in small colliding systems delivered a large amount of precise data on several hyperonnucleon pairs. Several interactions relevant for the physics of neutron stars, such as pΛ and pΞ, have been compared to the femtoscopic data and the effects on the corresponding Equation of State have been investigated. The extension to the three-body forces with the measurement of correlations involving triplets and proton-deuteron pairs will provide for the first time access to the genuine three-body interaction and shed light on the hyperon-puzzle.