2017/12/04 by Shuzhe Shi, Shi, Shuzhe, Kangle Li +3 · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #FOS: Physical sciences #High Energy Physics - Phenomenology (hep-ph) #High-Energy Particle Collisions Research #Nuclear Theory (nucl-th) #Particle physics theoretical and experimental studies #Quantum Chromodynamics and Particle Interactions
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1712.00878
openalex publication_date 2017/12/04 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Recently the STAR Collaboration discovered the "subatomic swirls", that is, the most vortical fluid flow structures in the quark-gluon plasma produced via the AuAu collisions at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC). Published in Nature and featured as a cover story, this discovery attracted significant interest and generated wide enthusiasm. For such an important finding, it is crucial to look for independent evidences of confirmation and to critically test the current interpretation of the global polarization measurement. We suggest that the CuCu and CuAu colliding systems at RHIC provide such opportunity. Interestingly, our calculations reveal that the fluid vorticity in the CuCu or CuAu collision is comparable to that in the AuAu Collision. Surprisingly, we find the computed Λ hyperon polarization effect is stronger in the CuCu and CuAu systems than the AuAu system at the same collisional beam energy and centrality class, with an interesting hierarchy CuCu > CuAu > AuAu due to interplay between Λ production timing and the time evolution of the vorticity. These predictions can be readily tested by experimental data.