Global and local polarization of $\Lambda$ ($\bar{\Lambda}$) hyperons in Pb--Pb collisions in ALICE at the LHC

Abstract

The global polarization of the $\Lambda$ and $\bar\Lambda$ hyperons ($P_{\rm H}$) has been measured in Pb--Pb collisions at $\sNN=$ 2.76 TeV and 5.02 TeV in ALICE at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). The hyperon global polarization is found to be consistent with zero at both collision energies. The local polarization of the $\Lambda$ and $\bar\Lambda$ hyperons along the beam ($z$) direction, $P_{\rm z}$, has also been measured in Pb--Pb collisions at $\sNN=5.02$ TeV. The $P_{\rm z}$, measured as a function of the hyperon emission angle relative to the second harmonic symmetry plane, exhibits a second harmonic sine modulation, as expected due to elliptic flow. The measurements of global and local hyperon polarization are reported for different collision centralities and as a function of transverse momentum in semicentral collisions. These results show the first experimental evidence of a non-zero hyperon $P_{\rm z}$ in Pb--Pb collisions at the LHC.