Analysis of dilepton angular distributions in a parity breaking medium

Abstract

We investigate how local parity breaking due to large topological fluctuations may affect hadron physics. A modified dispersion relation is derived for the lightest vector mesons ρ and ω. They exhibit a mass splitting depending on their polarization. We present a detailed analysis of the angular distribution associated to the lepton pairs created from these mesons searching for polarization dependencies. We propose two angular variables that carry information related to the parity breaking effect. Possible signatures for experimental detection of local parity breaking that could potentially be seen by the PHENIX and STAR collaborations are discussed.