A quark coalescence model for polarized vector mesons and baryons

Abstract

A non-relativistic quark coalescence model is formulated for polarized vector mesons and baryons of spin-1/2 octet and spin-3/2 decuplet. With the spin density matrix, one can compute in a uniform way the polarizations of vector mesons and baryons from those of quarks and antiquarks with explicit momentum dependence. The results are compared to that obtained from kinetic and statistical models for hadrons.

Comments: Revtex 4, 17 pages, no figure; Appendix B and C have been removed, a new Appendix C is added; The discussions about the comparison between the coalescence model and the hadron statistical model have been expanded. To appear in PRC