Elliptic flow in ultra-relativistic collisions with light polarized nuclei

Abstract: Estimates for elliptic flow in collisions of polarized light nuclei with spin $j\ge1$ with a heavy nucleus are presented. In such collisions the azimuthal symmetry is broken via polarization of the wave function of the light nucleus, resulting in nonzero one-body elliptic flow coefficient evaluated relative to the polarization axis. Our estimates involve experimentally well known features of light nuclei, such as their quadrupole moment and the charge radius, yielding the one-body elliptic flow coefficient in the range from 1\% for collisions with the deuteron to 5\% for for collisions with $^{10}$B nucleus. Prospects of addressing the issue in the upcoming fixed-target experiment at the Large Hadron Collider are discussed.