The first evidence of spin alignment of vector mesons (K∗0 and φ) in heavy-ion collisions at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is reported. The spin density matrix element ρ00 is measured at midrapidity (|y|<0.5) in Pb-Pb collisions at a center-of-mass energy (sNN) of 2.76 TeV with the ALICE detector. ρ00 values are found to be less than 1/3 (1/3 implies no spin alignment) at low transverse momentum (pT<2 GeV/c) for K∗0 and φ at a level of 3σ and 2σ, respectively. No significant spin alignment is observed for the KS0 meson (spin=0) in Pb-Pb collisions and for the vector mesons in pp collisions. The measured spin alignment is unexpectedly large but qualitatively consistent with the expectation from models which attribute it to a polarization of quarks in the presence of angular momentum in heavy-ion collisions and a subsequent hadronization by the process of recombination.
Evidence of Spin-Orbital Angular Momentum Interactions in Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collisions / Acharya, S; Adamova, D.; Adolfson, J; Aggarwal, M.; Rinella, G.; Agnello, M.; Agrawal, N; Bufalino, S.; Concas, M.; Grosa, F.; Ravasenga, I.; Catalano, F.; Fecchio, P.. - In: PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS. - ISSN 0031-9007. - STAMPA. - 125:1(2020), p. 012301.
Titolo: | Evidence of Spin-Orbital Angular Momentum Interactions in Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collisions | |
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Data di pubblicazione: | 2020 | |
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Digital Object Identifier (DOI): | http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.125.012301 | |
Appare nelle tipologie: | 1.1 Articolo in rivista |
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http://hdl.handle.net/11583/2848372