Investigation of the source size and strong interaction with the femtoscopic correlations of baryons and antibaryons in heavy-ion collisions registered by ALICE

The strong interaction is one of the four fundamental forces of nature. It binds together quarks inside protons and neutrons (which are example of baryons - particles composed of three quarks) and assures the stability of the atomic nucleus. Parameters describing the strong potential are also crucial for the neutron stars models used in astrophysics. What is more, a precise study of strongly interacting particles may help to better understand the process of baryon annihilation. The current knowledge of the strong interactions between baryons other than nucle- ons is limited - there exist only a few measurements of the cross sections for pairs of (anti)baryons. The reason is that in many cases it is not possible to perform scattering experiments with beams of particles and antiparticles, as the exotic matter (such as Λ, Ξ or Σ baryons) is very shot-living. This issue can be solved thanks to the recent particle colliders like the Large Hadron Collider and experiments dedicated to study the heavy-ion collisions, such as ALICE (A Large Ion Collider Experiment). In high-energy heavy-ion collisions thousands of particles are produced, including very massive ones. Moreover, similar amount of matter and antimatter is created. This provides a unique environment for the study of strong interaction of pairs of (anti)baryons at low relative momenta. Measurement of correlation in momenta of (anti)baryons produced in the heavy-ion collisions may allow to determine parameters describing the strong potential. In this thesis the focus is put on the development, verification and application of a method based on such correlations. For the purpose of this thesis, theoretical in-depth study of such method was performed. Next, an application was developed to allow for simultaneous fit of multiple pair types. The procedure of fitting baryon-(anti)baryon correlation functions was tested on the model data. Then, correlation functions were calculated using the data collected by ALICE. Finally, the newly-developed procedure was applied to the experimental data, taking into account a series of effects (so-called residual correlations, correction of the non- femtoscopic background, momentum resolution). Strong interaction parameters were then extracted from the fit for different baryon-antibaryon pairs and systematic uncertainties were estimated.