Einstein-de Haas effect and induced rotation in QCD matter

Abstract

In this study, we report the first identification of the Einstein-de Haas (EdH) effect in the QCD matter. The EdH effect is a fundamental magnetomechanical coupling wherein magnetic-field-induced spin alignment generates a compensating collective rotation to conserve the total angular momentum. Using an equilibrium hadron gas under an external magnetic field, we show that even remnant magnetic fields at the freeze-out produce induced rotations ($ω_{\mathrm{EdH}}$) comparable to typical estimates of fluid vorticity in heavy-ion collisions as inferred from final-state hyperon polarization. This rotation emerges from the magnetic field alone, without any initial vorticity as input. The Einstein-de Haas effect thus establishes hot QCD matter as a self-vortical magnetofluid, where collective rotation can be generated purely from spin alignment, and identifies spin-rotation coupling as a potentially important, previously overlooked component of angular momentum dynamics in relativistic nuclear collisions.