Correlations of two charged identical kaons (${\mathrm{K}}^{\mathrm{ch}}{\mathrm{K}}^{\mathrm{ch}}$) are measured in $pp$ collisions at $\sqrt{s}=7\mathrm{TeV}$ by the ALICE experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). One-dimensional ${\mathrm{K}}^{\mathrm{ch}}{\mathrm{K}}^{\mathrm{ch}}$ correlation functions are constructed in three multiplicity and four transverse momentum ranges. The ${\mathrm{K}}^{\mathrm{ch}}{\mathrm{K}}^{\mathrm{ch}}$ femtoscopic source parameters $R$ and $\lambda$ are extracted. The ${\mathrm{K}}^{\mathrm{ch}}{\mathrm{K}}^{\mathrm{ch}}$ correlations show a slight increase of femtoscopic radii with increasing multiplicity and a slight decrease of radii with increasing transverse momentum. These trends are similar to the ones observed for $\pi \pi$ and ${\mathrm{K}}_{\mathrm{s}}^0{\mathrm{K}}_{\mathrm{s}}^0$ correlations in $pp$ and heavy-ion collisions. However at high multiplicities, there is an indication that the one-dimensional correlation radii for charged kaons are larger than those for pions in contrast to what was observed in heavy-ion collisions at the Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collider.

• Received 24 December 2012

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.87.052016

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© 2013 CERN, for the ALICE Collaboration