Analytic model studies of polarized baryon production

TL;DR

This paper derives analytic formulas for baryon polarization in heavy-ion collisions, linking polarization measurements to the dynamical properties of the quark-gluon plasma, such as vorticity, using exact hydrodynamic solutions.

Contribution

It provides the first analytic formulas connecting baryon polarization to hydrodynamic properties of the quark-gluon plasma in high-energy collisions.

Findings

Analytic formulas for baryon polarization at freeze-out.

Connection between polarization and plasma vorticity.

Insights into rotating and accelerating hydrodynamic solutions.

Abstract

We investigate known exact solutions of hydrodynamics and derive analytic formulas for the polarization of baryons produced at freeze-out. Such polarization (observed in high energy heavy-ion experiments) carries information on the time evolution of the quark-gluon plasma (sQGP), and our results give first analytic insight into the connection between this type of measurements and dynamical properties of the sQGP (e.g. vorticity). We present results for a rotating and acceleratingly expanding solution and also give hints on how to calculate the polarization using a rotating extension of the Buda--Lund parameterization.