Assessing background effects in search of the chiral vortical effect in relativistic heavy-ion collisions
Chunzheng Wang, Jie Wan, Jinfeng Liao, Yugang Ma, Shuzhe Shi, Qiye Shou, Zhengqing Wang, Kegang Xiong, Song Zhang, Liang Zheng
Published: 2025/9/10
Abstract
The search for the Chiral Vortical Effect (CVE) in relativistic heavy-ion collisions is carried out by measuring azimuthal correlators for baryon pairs such as $\Lambda$ and protons. Experimental results from the ALICE collaboration show significant separations in these observables, however, the interpretation remains unclear. It is believed that background contributions from baryon production mechanisms may play an important role. Using three phenomenological models, the Blast Wave, AMPT, and AVFD+UrQMD, we systematically investigate the background effects in Pb--Pb collisions at \snn = 5.02 TeV. We demonstrate that local baryon conservation, as well as hadronic annihilation processes, can significantly influence the correlators. The feed-down contribution from secondary protons is also estimated. Our study provides a foundation for disentangling background mechanisms and further facilitates the search for the CVE.