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Phys. Rev. C 76, 024915 (2007) [10 pages]

Global polarization measurement in Au+Au collisions

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B. I. Abelev et al. STAR Collaboration
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Received 11 May 2007; published 29 August 2007

The system created in noncentral relativistic nucleus-nucleus collisions possesses large orbital angular momentum. Because of spin-orbit coupling, particles produced in such a system could become globally polarized along the direction of the system angular momentum. We present the results of Λ and Λ̅ hyperon global polarization measurements in Au+Au collisions at sNN=62.4 and 200 GeV performed with the STAR detector at the BNL Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC). The observed global polarization of Λ and Λ̅ hyperons in the STAR acceptance is consistent with zero within the precision of the measurements. The obtained upper limit, |PΛ,Λ̅ |⩽0.02, is compared with the theoretical values discussed recently in the literature.

© 2007 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevC.76.024915
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevC.76.024915
PACS:
24.70.+s, 14.20.Jn, 25.75.Ld