Photon polarization as a probe for quark-gluon plasma dynamics

Understand

Prospects of measuring polarized photons emitted from a quark-gluon plasma (QGP) are discussed.

• In particular, the detection of a possible quark spin polarization in a QGP using circularly polarized photons emitted from the plasma is studied.
• Photons leave the QGP without further interaction and thus provide a primary probe for quark polarization within the QGP.
• We find that photon polarization cannot solely arise due to a possible QGP momentum space anisotropy, but may be enhanced due to it.