Spin Hall effect in heavy-ion collisions

Spin Hall effect (SHE) is the generation of spin current due to an electric field, and has been observed in a variety of materials. In this work, we use linear response theory to verify that the analogous spin Hall current can be induced by chemical potential and temperature gradient, both of which arc present in hot and dense nuclear matter created in heavy-ion collisions. We propose to measure directed spin flow, the first Fourier coefficients of local spin polarization of Lambda ((Lambda) over bar) hyperon, at central collisions to probe spin Hall current in heavy-ion collision experiments. We benchmark the magnitude of the induced directed spin flow at two representatively collisions energies, namely root S-NN = 200 GeV and root S-NN = 19.6 GeV, by employing a phenomenologically motivated freeze-out prescription. At both beam energies, the resulting directed spin flow ranges from 10(-4) to 10(-3), and is very sensitive to the rapidity.

Automated summary

This study verifies that chemical potential and temperature gradient can induce spin Hall current in heavy-ion collisions, and proposes to detect it by measuring local spin polarization of Lambda (Λ) hyperon. The induced directed spin flow varies at different collision energies and is highly sensitive to rapidity.