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arXiv · 2610.41386

The role of spin polarization in event-by-event fluctuations

Abstract

The event-by-event initial state fluctuations constitute a critical physical quantity for understanding the dynamics of high-energy heavy-ion collisions. Due to the extremely limited available experimental data of such fluctuations, it is difficult to constrain or direct the characterization of the underlying initial state properties. This work constrains the correlation function between the initial eccentricity and the asymmetry by employing a parton distribution function that incorporates spin polarization induced by thermal vorticity and thermal shear. Based on the kinetic theory calculations, we found that the asymmetry fluctuations considering spin polarization have a significant splitting effect compared to those without spin polarization. These splitting exhibit pronounced system size and energy dependence. Moreover, the ratios of correlation function display similar system size and energy dependence--particularly in the low-temperature regime ($T \lesssim$ 0.12 GeV). These results suggest that spin polarization may serve as a useful constraint method for the event-by-event initial state fluctuations of heavy-ion collisions.

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Xiao-Ying He, Li-Juan Zhou, Li-Xin Yang, Qian-Qian Du, De-Xian Wei. 2026-10-30. The role of spin polarization in event-by-event fluctuations. https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.41386

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