Thermal vorticity and spin polarization in heavy-ion collisions

The hot and dense matter generated in heavy-ion collisions contains intricate vortical structure in which the local fluid vorticity can be very large. Such vorticity can polarize the spin of the produced particles. We study the event-by-event generation of the so-called thermal vorticity in Au+Au collisions at energy region root s = 7.7-200 GeV and calculate its time evolution, spatial distribution, etc., in a multiphase transport model. We then compute the spin polarization of the Lambda and (Lambda) over bar hyperons as a function of root s, transverse momentum p(T) , rapidity, and azimuthal angle. Furthermore, we study the harmonic flow of the spin, in a manner analogous to the harmonic flow of the particle number. The measurement of the spin harmonic flow may provide a way to probe the vortical structure in heavy-ion collisions. We also discuss the spin polarization of Xi(0) and Omega(-) hyperons, which may provide further information about the spin polarization mechanism of hadrons.