Electron

Gluon

Color charge

Spin polarization

Plasma

Quantum chromodynamics

Quantum electrodynamics

Quantum mechanics

Physical chemistry

Quantum number

Polarization (electrochemistry)

Quark

Particle physics

Nuclear physics

Quark–gluon plasma

Quantum

Chemistry

Parity (physics)

Physics

Physical review. D/Physical review. D.

We study the important, yet widely overlooked, role of gluons for spin transport with a connection to local parity violation in quark gluon plasmas. We employ the formalism of quantum kinetic theory to quarks in weakly coupled quantum chromodynamics to derive the source terms for quark spin polarization. These source terms involve parity-odd correlators of dynamically generated color fields in near-equilibrium quark gluon plasmas and give rise to locally fluctuating axial charge currents. Our results provide a possible explanation for the spin alignment of vector mesons measured in high-energy nuclear collisions.

Anomalous spin polarization from turbulent color fields