Polarization dynamics in the paramagnet of a charged quark-gluon plasma

Abstract

It is commonly understood that the strong magnetic field produced in heavy ion collisions is short-lived. The electric conductivity of the quark-gluon plasma is unable to significantly extend the lifetime of the magnetic field. We propose an alternative scenario to achieve this: with finite baryon density and spin polarization by the initial magnetic field, the quark-gluon plasma behaves as a paramagnet, which may continue to polarize the quark after fading of the initial magnetic field. We confirm this picture by calculations in both quantum electrodynamics and quantum chromodynamics. In the former case, we find a splitting in the damping rates of probe fermions with an opposite spin component along the magnetic field. In the latter case, we find a similar splitting in damping rate of the probe quark in quark-gluon plasma in both high and low density limits. The splitting provides a way of polarizing strange quarks by the quark-gluon plasma paramagnet consisting of light quarks, which effectively extends the lifetime of the magnetic field in heavy ion collisions. Published by the American Physical Society 2024