Polarization as a signature of local parity violation in hot QCD matter

Abstract

We show that local parity violation due to chirality imbalance in relativistic nuclear collisions can be revealed by measuring the projection of the polarization vector onto the momentum, i.e. the helicity, of final state baryons. The proposed method does not require a coupling to the electromagnetic field, like in the Chiral Magnetic Effect. By using linear response theory, we show that, in the presence of a chiral imbalance, the spin 1/2 baryons and anti-baryons receive an additional contribution to the polarization along their momentum and proportional to the axial chemical potential. The additional, parity-breaking, contribution to helicity can be detected by studying helicity-helicity azimuthal angular correlation.

arXiv comment13 pages, 3 figures; final version to appear in Physics Letters B

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Cited by in corpus (2)

• Foundations and Applications of Quantum Kinetic Theory
• Spin polarization dynamics in the Gubser-expanding background