No Arabic abstract
Global polarization of $Lambda$ and $bar{Lambda}$ is calculated based on the axial vortical effect (AVE). Simulations are performed within the model of the three-fluid dynamics. Equations of state with the deconfinement transition result in a good agreement with STAR data for both $Lambda$ and $bar{Lambda}$ polarization, in particular, with the $Lambda$-$bar{Lambda}$ splitting. Suppression of the gravitational-anomaly contribution required for the data reproduction is in agreement with predictions of the QCD lattice simulations. Predictions for the global polarization in forthcoming experiments at lower collision energies are made. These forthcoming data will provide a critical test for the AVE and thermodynamic mechanisms of the polarization.
Possible correlations of the global polarization of $Lambda$ hyperons with the angular momentum and transverse flow in the central region of colliding nuclei are studied based on refined estimate of the global polarization. Simulations of Au+Au collisions at collision energies $sqrt{s_{NN}}=$ 6-40 GeV are performed within the model of the three-fluid dynamics. Within the crossover and first-order-phase-transition scenarios this refined estimate quite satisfactorily reproduces the experimental STAR data. Hadronic scenario fails at high collision energies, $sqrt{s_{NN}}>$ 10 GeV, and even predicts opposite sign of the global polarization. It is found that the global polarization correlates with neither the angular momentum accumulated in the central region nor with directed and elliptic flow. At the same time we observed correlation between the angular momentum and directed flow in both their time and collision-energy dependence. These results suggest that, although initially the angular momentum is the driving force for the vortex generation, later the angular momentum and vortex motion become decorrelated in the midrapidity region. Then the midrapidity angular momentum is determined by the pattern of the directed flow and even becomes negative when the antiflow occurs. At the freeze-out stage, the dominant part of the participant angular momentum is accumulated in the fragmentation regions.
We use a geometric model for the hadron polarization with an emphasis on the rapidity dependence. It is based on the model of Brodsky, Gunion, and Kuhn and that of the Bjorken scaling. We make predictions for the rapidity dependence of the hadron polarization in the collision energy range 7.7-200 GeV by taking a few assumed forms of the parameters. The predictions can be tested by future experiments.
The Chiral Magnetic Effect (CME) is a remarkable phenomenon that stems from highly nontrivial interplay of QCD chiral symmetry, axial anomaly, and gluonic topology. It is of fundamental importance to search for the CME in experiments. The heavy ion collisions provide a unique environment where a hot chiral-symmetric quark-gluon plasma is created, gluonic topological fluctuations generate chirality imbalance, and very strong magnetic fields $|vec{bf B}|sim m_pi^2$ are present during the early stage of such collisions. Significant efforts have been made to look for CME signals in heavy ion collision experiments. In this contribution we give a brief overview on the status of such efforts.
In non-central relativistic heavy ion collisions, the created matter possesses a large initial orbital angular momentum. Particles produced in the collisions could be polarized globally in the direction of the orbital angular momentum due to spin-orbit coupling. Recently, the STAR experiment has presented polarization signals for $Lambda$ hyperons and possible spin alignment signals for $phi$ mesons. Here we discuss the effects of finite coverage on these observables. The results from a multi-phase transport and a toy model both indicate that a pseudorapidity coverage narrower than $|eta|< sim 1$ will generate a larger value for the extracted $phi$-meson $rho_{00}$ parameter; thus a finite coverage can lead to an artificial deviation of $rho_{00}$ from 1/3. We also show that a finite $eta$ and $p_T$ coverage affect the extracted $p_H$ parameter for $Lambda$ hyperons when the real $p_H$ value is non-zero. Therefore proper corrections are necessary to reliably quantify the global polarization with experimental observables.