A quark coalescence model for polarized vector mesons and baryons

TL;DR

This paper develops a non-relativistic quark coalescence model to calculate the polarization of vector mesons and baryons, linking quark spin states to hadron polarization with explicit momentum dependence.

Contribution

It introduces a unified framework using spin density matrices to determine hadron polarization from quark polarization, including momentum effects.

Findings

Provides explicit formulas for hadron polarization based on quark states

Compares coalescence model results with kinetic and statistical models

Offers a new approach to study polarization phenomena in hadron formation

Abstract

A non-relativistic quark coalescence model is formulated for polarized vector mesons and baryons of spin-1/2 octet and spin-3/2 decuplet. With the spin density matrix, one can compute in a uniform way the polarizations of vector mesons and baryons from those of quarks and antiquarks with explicit momentum dependence. The results are compared to that obtained from kinetic and statistical models for hadrons.