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Wojciech Florkowski

Publications and source records attributed to Wojciech Florkowski.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

Longitudinal spin polarization in a thermal model with dissipative corrections

In this work, we address the problem of longitudinal spin polarization of the $Λ$ hyperons produced in relativistic heavy-ion collisions. We combine a relativistic kinetic-theory framework that includes spin degrees of freedom treated in a classical way with the freeze-out parametrization used in previous investigations. The use of the kinetic theory allows us to incorporate dissipative corrections (due to the thermal shear and gradients of thermal vorticity) into the Pauli-Lubanski vector that determines spin polarization and can be directly compared with the experimental data. As in earlier similar studies, it turns out that a successful description of data can only be achieved with additional assumptions -- in our case, they involve the use of projected thermal vorticity and a suitably adjusted time for spin relaxation ($τ_s$). From our analysis, we find that $τ_s \sim 5$ fm/$c$, which is comparable with other estimates.

hep-ph↗

Spheroidal expansion and freeze-out geometry of heavy-ion collisions in the few-GeV energy regime

A spheroidal model of the expansion of hadronic matter produced in heavy-ion collisions in the few-GeV energy regime is proposed. It constitutes an extension of the spherically symmetric Siemens-Rasmussen blast-wave model used in our previous works. The spheroidal form of the expansion, combined with a single-freeze-out scenario, allows for a significantly improved description of both the transverse-mass and the rapidity distributions of the produced particles. With the model parameters determined by the hadronic abundances and spectra, we make further predictions of the pion HBT correlation radii that turn out to be in a qualitative agreement with the measured ones. The overall successful description of the data supports the concept of spheroidal symmetry of the produced hadronic systems in this energy range.

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Relativistic magnetohydrodynamics with spin

In this work, we present a novel framework of relativistic non-resistive dissipative magnetohydrodynamics for spin-polarized particles. Utilizing a classical relativistic kinetic equation for the distribution function in an extended phase-space of position, momentum, and spin, we derive equations of motion for dissipative currents at first-order in spacetime gradients. Our findings reveal a coupling between fluid vorticity and magnetization via an electromagnetic field, leading to relativistic analogs of the Einstein-de Haas and Barnett effects. Our study provides a tool for a better understanding of the polarization phenomena observed in relativistic heavy-ion collisions.

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Study of spin polarization dependence on rapidity, transverse momentum, and azimuthal angle

We investigate the spacetime evolution of spin polarization within a hydrodynamic framework based on the de Groot--van Leeuwen--van Weert expressions for energy-momentum and spin tensors. The system's deviation from boost invariance results in the interplay of different spin polarization components, impacting spin observables. We specifically examine the transverse momentum, azimuthal angle, and rapidity dependence of the mean spin polarization vector of $Λ$ hyperons. Our results qualitatively align with other models and experimental data on global spin polarization rapidity dependence. While the quadrupole structure is absent in the longitudinal component at midrapidity, our analysis reveals non-trivial signal at forward rapidities that differs from predictions based on the Bjorken expansion.

hep-ph↗

Dense Nuclear Matter Equation of State from Heavy-Ion Collisions

The nuclear equation of state (EOS) is at the center of numerous theoretical and experimental efforts in nuclear physics. With advances in microscopic theories for nuclear interactions, the availability of experiments probing nuclear matter under conditions not reached before, endeavors to develop sophisticated and reliable transport simulations to interpret these experiments, and the advent of multi-messenger astronomy, the next decade will bring new opportunities for determining the nuclear matter EOS, elucidating its dependence on density, temperature, and isospin asymmetry. Among controlled terrestrial experiments, collisions of heavy nuclei at intermediate beam energies (from a few tens of MeV/nucleon to about 25 GeV/nucleon in the fixed-target frame) probe the widest ranges of baryon density and temperature, enabling studies of nuclear matter from a few tenths to about 5 times the nuclear saturation density and for temperatures from a few to well above a hundred MeV, respectively. Collisions of neutron-rich isotopes further bring the opportunity to probe effects due to the isospin asymmetry. However, capitalizing on the enormous scientific effort aimed at uncovering the dense nuclear matter EOS, both at RHIC and at FRIB as well as at other international facilities, depends on the continued development of state-of-the-art hadronic transport simulations. This white paper highlights the essential role that heavy-ion collision experiments and hadronic transport simulations play in understanding strong interactions in dense nuclear matter, with an emphasis on how these efforts can be used together with microscopic approaches and neutron star studies to uncover the nuclear EOS.

nucl-th↗

Polarization of spin-1/2 particles with effective spacetime dependent masses

Semiclassical expansion of the Wigner function for spin-1/2 fermions having an effective spacetime-dependent mass is used to analyze spin-polarization effects. The existing framework is reformulated to obtain a differential equation directly connecting the particle spin tensor with the effective mass. It reflects the conservation of the total angular momentum in a system. In general, we find that the gradients of mass act as a source of the spin polarization. Although this effect is absent for simple boost-invariant dynamics, an extension to non-boost-invariant systems displays a non-trivial dependence of the spin density on the mass indicating that the spin polarization effects may be intertwined with the phenomenon of chiral restoration.

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Stability constraint for spin equation of state

A generalized Frenkel condition is proposed for use in spin hydrodynamics to relate the spin density and spin polarization (or spin chemical potential) tensors. It allows for independent treatment of electric- and magnetic-like components of the spin density tensor, which helps to fulfill the stability conditions recently derived in the literature. The generalized Frenkel condition extrapolates between the original Frenkel condition, where only the magnetic-like part of the spin tensor is present, and the case where the spin density tensor is directly proportional to the spin polarization tensor. We also demonstrate that our approach is supported by the result of a microscopic calculation.

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Deuteron production in a combined thermal and coalescence framework for heavy-ion collisions in the few-GeV energy regime

A recently formulated thermal model for hadron production in heavy-ion collisions in the few-GeV energy regime is combined with the idea that some part of protons and neutrons present in the original thermal system forms deuterons via the coalescence mechanism. Using realistic parametrizations of the freeze-out conditions, which reproduce well the spectra of protons and pions, we make predictions for deuteron transverse-momentum and rapidity spectra. The best agreement with the experimentally known deuteron yield is obtained if the freeze-out temperature is relatively high and, accordingly, the system size at freeze-out is rather small. In addition, the standard Gaussian distribution of the relative distance between nucleons is replaced by the distribution resulting from their independent and approximately uniform production inside the initial thermal system.

nucl-th↗

Semi-classical kinetic theory for massive spin-half fermions with leading-order spin effects

We consider the quantum kinetic-theory description for interacting massive spin-half fermions using the Wigner function formalism. We derive a general kinetic theory description assuming that the spin effects appear at the classical and quantum level. To track the effect of such different contributions we use the semi-classical expansion method to obtain the generalized dynamical equations including spin, analogous to classical Boltzmann equation. This approach can be used to obtain a collision kernel involving local as well as non-local collisions among the microscopic constituent of the system and eventually, a framework of spin hydrodynamics ensuring the conservation of the energy-momentum tensor and total angular momentum tensor.

hep-th↗

Canonical and phenomenological formulations of spin hydrodynamics

Two formulations of relativistic hydrodynamics of particles with spin 1/2 are compared. The first approach, dubbed the canonical one, uses expressions for the energy-momentum and spin tensors that have properties that follow a direct application of Noether's theorem, which yields a totally antisymmetric spin tensor. The other one is based on a simplified form of the spin tensor and is commonly used in the current literature under the name of a phenomenological approach. We show that these two frameworks are equivalent, i.e., they can be directly connected by a suitably defined pseudogauge transformation, only if the first framework is initially improved by a suitable modification of the energy-momentum tensor (addition of a divergence-free term that cannot be interpreted as a pseudogauge). Our analysis uses arguments related to the positivity of entropy production. The latter turns out to be equivalent for the improved canonical and phenomenological frameworks.

nucl-th↗

Pseudogauge freedom and the SO(3) algebra of spin operators

The energy-momentum and spin tensors for a given theory can be replaced by alternative expressions that obey the same conservation laws for the energy, linear momentum, as well as angular momentum but, however, differ by the local redistribution of such quantities (with global energy, linear momentum, and angular momentum remaining unchanged). This arbitrariness is described in recent literature as the pseudogauge freedom or symmetry. In this letter, we analyze several pseudogauges used to formulate the relativistic hydrodynamics of particles with spin 1/2 and conclude that the canonical version of the spin tensor has an advantage over other forms as only the canonical definition defines the spin operators that fulfill the SO(3) algebra of angular momentum. This result sheds new light on the results encountered in recent papers demonstrating pseudogauge dependence of various physical quantities. It indicates that for spin-polarization observables, the canonical version is fundamentally better suited for building a connection between theory and experiment.

hep-th↗

Relativistic second-order spin hydrodynamics: an entropy-current analysis

We present a new derivation of Israel-Stewart-like relativistic second-order dissipative spin hydrodynamic equations using the entropy current approach. In our analysis, we consider a general energy-momentum tensor with symmetric and anti-symmetric parts. Moreover, the spin tensor, which is not separately conserved, has a simple phenomenological form that is antisymmetric only in the last two indices. Apart from the evolution equations for energy density, fluid flow, and spin density, we also find relaxation-type dynamical equations for various dissipative currents. The latter are consistently derived within the second-order theory as gradient corrections to the energy-momentum and spin tensors. We argue that this approach correctly reproduces the corresponding Navier-Stokes limit of spin hydrodynamic equations. Throughout our analysis, the spin chemical potential is considered a $\mathcal{O}(\partial)$ quantity in the hydrodynamic gradient expansion and reduces to thermal vorticity in the global equilibrium. New coefficients appearing in the generalized spin hydrodynamic equations are undetermined and can only be evaluated within a proper underlying microscopic theory of a given system.

nucl-th↗

Relativistic Spin Magnetohydrodynamics

Starting from kinetic theory description of massive spin-1/2 particles in presence of magnetic field, equations for relativistic dissipative non-resistive magnetohydrodynamics are obtained in the small polarization limit. We use a relaxation time approximation for the collision kernel in the relativistic Boltzmann equation and calculate non-equilibrium corrections to the phase-space distribution function of spin-polarizable particles. We demonstrate that our framework naturally leads to emergence of the well known Einstein-de Hass and Barnett effects. We obtain multiple transport coefficients and show, for the first time, that the coupling between spin and magnetic field appear at gradient order in hydrodynamic equations.

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Boost invariant spin hydrodynamics within the first order in derivative expansion

Boost-invariant equations of spin hydrodynamics confined to the first-order terms in gradients are numerically solved. The spin equation of state, relating the spin density tensor to the spin chemical potential, is consistently included in the first order. Depending on its form and the structure of the spin transport coefficients, we find solutions which are both stable and unstable within the considered evolution times of 10 fm/c. These findings are complementary to the recent identification of stable and unstable modes for perturbed uniform spin systems described by similar hydrodynamic frameworks.

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On the interpretation of $Λ$ spin polarization measurements

The physics interpretation of the recent measurements of the spin polarization of $Λ$ hyperons produced in relativistic heavy-ion collisions is discussed. We suggest that the polarization measured in the $Λ$ rest frame should be projected along the direction of the total angular momentum that is first transformed to the same frame, and only then averaged over $Λ$'s with different momenta in the center-of-mass frame. While this procedure does not affect the current measurements done in a broad transverse-momentum range, it may become important (represent a correction of about 10\%) for the most energetic hyperons under study (with transverse momenta reaching 4-5 GeV/c). The proposed treatment is generally more appropriate for relativistic $Λ$'s. Throughout the paper, we deliver explicit expressions for various boosts, rotations, and transformations of angular distributions, which may help to compare model predictions with the experimental results.

hep-ph↗

Quantum baryon number fluctuations in subsystems of a hot and dense relativistic gas of fermions

Quantum features of the baryon number fluctuations in subsystems of a hot and dense relativistic gas of fermions are analyzed. We find that the fluctuations in small systems are significantly increased compared to their values known from the statistical physics, and diverge in the limit where the system size goes to zero. The numerical results obtained for a broad range of the thermodynamic parameters expected in heavy-ion collisions are presented. They can be helpful to interpret and shed new light on the experimental data.

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Spin polarization dynamics in the non-boost-invariant background

Space-time evolution of spin polarization within the framework of hydrodynamics with spin based on de Groot - van Leeuwen - van Weert forms of energy-momentum and spin tensors is studied. Due to the non-boost invariant flow in the system the spin polarization components couple to each other implying some effects on the spin polarization observables. We study transverse-momentum and rapidity dependence of mean spin polarization vector for $Λ$ hyperons. Our results show qualitative agreement for rapidity dependence of the global spin polarization with the experiments and other models. The quadrupole structure of the longitudinal component at midrapidity is not found, however, as compared to the results for Bjorken expansion, some non-trivial signal at forward rapidities is observed.

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