Measurement of transverse $\hat{I}›$ and $\bar{\hat{I}}›$ hyperon polarization in $p$Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=5.02$ TeV

Abstract

The transverse polarization of $\hat{I}›$ and $\bar{\hat{I}}›$ hyperons is measured in $p$Pb collisions collected by the LHCb experiment at a nucleon-nucleon center-of-mass energy of $5.02$ TeV. The polarization is averaged over hyperon transverse momentum in the ranges $0.15<p_T<6.00$ GeV/$c$, and Feynman-$x$ in the ranges $0.005<x_F<0.040$ (forward region) and $-0.10<x_F<-0.01$ (backward region) defined relative to the proton beam direction. The transverse polarization is found to be compatible with zero for both $\hat{I}›$ and $\bar{\hat{I}}›$ hyperons. The results are also measured as a function of $p_T$ and $x_F$ with no significant dependence on these variables observed. The results are compared with previous experimental measurements at different center-of-mass energies and collision environments.

All figures and tables, along with any supplementary material and additional information, are available at https://lbfence.cern.ch/alcm/public/analysis/full-details/3242 (LHCb public pages)