We study the polarization of particles in relativistic heavy-ion collisions at very high energy along the beam direction within a relativistic hydrodynamic framework. We show that this component of the polarization decreases much slower with center-of-mass energy compared to the transverse component, even in the ideal longitudinal boost-invariant scenario with nonfluctuating initial state, and that it can be measured by taking advantage of its quadrupole structure in the transverse momentum plane. In the ideal longitudinal boost-invariant scenario, the polarization is proportional to the gradient of temperature at the hadronization and its measurement can provide important information about the cooling rate of the quark-gluon plasma around the critical temperature.

• Received 28 July 2017

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.120.012302