Quarkonium spin alignment in a vortical medium

Abstract

We use a potential model to investigate the phenomenology of quarkonium in a thermal rotating medium, where vorticity and spin density are not necessarily in equilibrium. We find that the quarkonium spin density matrix, as well as the binding energy and melting temperature, are sensitive to both the vorticity and the lack of equilibrium between vorticity and spin. This means that quarkonium spin alignment is a sensitive probe for vorticity and spin within the hydrodynamic phase. Information unequivocably pointing to spin-orbit non-equilibrium dynamics can be obtained from a combined study of quarkonium relative abundance and spin alignment, as well as experimentally obtainable off-diagonal density matrix elements.