Polarization Measurements of Hyperons and Vector Mesons in Heavy Ion Collisions at STAR

Particles produced in non-central relativistic heavy ion collisions could become globally polarized due to the initial large orbital angular momentum and QCD spin-orbital coupling. Measurements of the polarization w.r.t. various kinematic planes may give insight into the mechanisms by which the polarization arises. We report the polarization measurements of Lambda((Lambda) over bar), and spin alignment of K+ and phi w.r.t. the reaction plane in Au+Au collisions at RHIC. In addition the spin alignment of the K+ and phi can be extracted w.r.t. a second plane, the production plane, which gives insight into the possible size of polarization phenomena in the production dynamics of vector mesons, is also reported.