Disoriented isospin condensates may be the source of anomalous kaon correlations measured in Pb-Pb collisions at sNN=2.76 TeV

The magnitude of fluctuations between charged and neutral kaons measured by the ALICE Collaboration in heavy-ion collisions at the LHC exceeds conventional explanation. Here it is shown that if the scalar condensate, which is typically associated with chiral symmetry, is accompanied by an <a:math xmlns:a="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><a:mrow><a:mi>isospin</a:mi><a:mo>=</a:mo><a:mn>1</a:mn></a:mrow></a:math> field, then the combination can produce large fluctuations where <b:math xmlns:b="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><b:mrow><b:mrow><b:mo>〈</b:mo><b:mover accent="true"><b:mi>u</b:mi><b:mo>¯</b:mo></b:mover><b:mi>u</b:mi><b:mo>〉</b:mo></b:mrow><b:mo>≠</b:mo><b:mrow><b:mo>〈</b:mo><b:mover accent="true"><b:mi>d</b:mi><b:mo>¯</b:mo></b:mover><b:mi>d</b:mi><b:mo>〉</b:mo></b:mrow></b:mrow></b:math>. Hadronizing strange and antistrange quarks might then strongly fluctuate between charged (<e:math xmlns:e="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><e:mrow><e:mi>u</e:mi><e:mover accent="true"><e:mi>s</e:mi><e:mo>¯</e:mo></e:mover></e:mrow></e:math> or <g:math xmlns:g="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><g:mrow><g:mi>s</g:mi><g:mover accent="true"><g:mi>u</g:mi><g:mo>¯</g:mo></g:mover></g:mrow></g:math>) and neutral (<i:math xmlns:i="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><i:mrow><i:mi>d</i:mi><i:mover accent="true"><i:mi>s</i:mi><i:mo>¯</i:mo></i:mover></i:mrow></i:math> or <k:math xmlns:k="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><k:mrow><k:mi>s</k:mi><k:mover accent="true"><k:mi>d</k:mi><k:mo>¯</k:mo></k:mover></k:mrow></k:math>) kaons.