Spin Alignment of Vector Meson in High Energy Reactions

Abstract

The recent data on the polarization of vector meson at LEP show that the vector mesons favor the helicity zero state. We calculate the helicity density matrix of vector meson which contains a polarized fragmenting quark by adding the spin of the fragmenting quark and that of the antiquark created in the fragmentation. The data at LEP imply a significant polarization for the antiquark in the opposite direction as that of the fragmenting quark. We extend the calculations to other reactions and make predictions for vector mesons in deeply inelastic lepton-nucleon scatterings and polarized $pp$ collisions.