Production of light (anti-) nuclei and (anti-)hypernuclei with ALICE at the LHC

The high energy pp, p-Pb, and Pb-Pb collisions at the LHC offer a unique tool to study the production of nuclei and the corresponding anti-particles and of hyperon-baryon bound systems, called hypernuclei. The study of the production yield of (anti-)(hyper-)nuclei in heay-ion collisions at the LHC energy can help to probe the late stages in the evolution of the hot, dense nuclear matter created in the collision and serves as baseline for the search of exotic multi-baryon states. The measurements in smaller collision systems have direct connections to cosmological and astrophysical studies, in particular for the search of dark matter candidates where one possible signal is the increased flux of light anti-nuclei which has an interplay with the measurement in in pp and p-A collisions. Thanks to its excellent particle identification and tracking capabilities, the ALICE detector allows for the measurement of deuterons, tritons, 3He, 4He and their corresponding anti-nuclei. Moreover, the secondary vertices from the mesonic decays of (anti-)hypernuclei can be reconstructed. Results on the production yields of light nuclei and anti-nuclei in pp, p-Pb, and Pb-Pb collisions will be presented, together with the measurements of hypertriton lifetime and production rates in Pb-Pb collisions. The experimental results will be compared to the predictions of statistical (thermal) model and baryon coalescence models. Further constraints on the production mechanism of light nuclei are obtained from measurements of the elliptic flow of light-nuclei and their comparison to expectations from coalescence and hydrodynamic models.