Spin density matrix for high-spin particles

Abstract

The spin density matrix (SDM) characterizes the spin state of a particle, which provides important information for understanding its production mechanism. A general discussion of the SDM under parity conservation, and specific SDM parameterizations for spin-1 and spin-2 particles are provided, which respect all the expected constraints. The imaginary (real) part of SDM is related to the degree of odd-rank (even-rank) polarization, with specific expressions given for spin-1 and spin-2 cases. Examples of applications of the SDM to angular analyses of several decay processes with different spin-parity hypotheses are also provided, which could be helpful in experimental data analyses.