Spin-Momentum Decoupling in Quarkonium Hadronization: Polarization Quenching via Environment-Induced Decoherence in Jets
Abstract
The suppression of heavy quarkonium polarization at high transverse momentum () remains a persistent puzzle in quantum chromodynamics (QCD). We propose an effective open-quantum-system paradigm demonstrating that the heavy quark spin state and its macroscopic momentum effectively decouple during hadronization. By retaining the short-distance non-relativistic QCD (NRQCD) perturbative calculations as a kinematic baseline, we argue that the immense kinematic inertia at high parametrically preserves the power-law momentum spectrum. Concurrently, the intense, stochastic chromo-electric background within a fragmenting jet acts as a dynamic decoherence environment. Using a horizon-inspired picture as a physically motivated parametrization, we derive an effective temperature driven by the multiplicity of soft accompanying partons. By incorporating this effective temperature into a Lindblad dissipation framework, we predict a simultaneous quenching of the polar and azimuthal anisotropies towards a maximally mixed state. Crucially, the recently observed ``soft'' fragmentation of by the CMS Collaboration provides a highly consistent phase-space weighting required in our framework to explain the historical inclusive unpolarized anomaly. Identifying the fragmentation fraction as the critical control variable, we propose that a key testable prediction is the simultaneous -dependent suppression of , , and in fixed quarkonium and jet bins.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2604.11847,
title = {Spin-Momentum Decoupling in Quarkonium Hadronization: Polarization Quenching via Environment-Induced Decoherence in Jets},
author = {Yi Yang},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2604.11847},
year = {2026}
}
Comments
Make a minor change in the reference