Feeddown contributions from unstable nuclei in relativistic heavy-ion collisions

We estimate the feeddown contributions from decays of unstable $A = 4$ and $A = 5$ nuclei to the final yields of protons, deuterons, tritons, $^3$He, and $^4$He produced in relativistic heavy-ion collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}} > 2.4$ GeV, using the statistical model. The feeddown contribution effects do not exceed 5% at LHC and top RHIC energies due to the large penalty factors involved, but are substantial at intermediate collision energies. We observe large feeddown contributions for tritons, $^3$He, and $^4$He at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}} \lesssim 10$ GeV, where they may account for as much as 70% of the final yield at the lower end of the collision energies considered. Sizable ($>10$%) effects for deuteron yields are observed at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}} \lesssim 4$ GeV. The results suggest that the excited nuclei feeddown cannot be neglected in the ongoing and future analysis of light nuclei production at intermediate collision energies, including HADES and CBM experiments at FAIR, NICA at JINR, RHIC beam energy scan and fixed-target programmes, and NA61/SHINE at CERN. We further show that the freeze-out curve in the $T$-$\mu_B$ plane itself is affected significantly by the light nuclei at high baryochemical potential.