Vorticity and Spin Polarization in Heavy Ion Collisions: Transport Models

Abstract

Heavy ion collisions generate strong fluid vorticity in the produced hot quark–gluon matter which could in turn induce measurable spin polarization of hadrons. We review recent progress on the vorticity formation and spin polarization in heavy ion collisions with transport models. We present an introduction to the fluid vorticity in non-relativistic and relativistic hydrodynamics and address various properties of the vorticity formed in heavy ion collisions. We discuss the spin polarization in a vortical fluid using the Wigner function formalism in which we derive the freeze-out formula for the spin polarization. Finally, we give a brief overview of recent theoretical results for both the global and local spin polarization of $$\Lambda $$ and $$\bar{\Lambda }$$ hyperons.