Polarization of the ϕ meson in the hadronic phase with nucleon scatterings and a viscous hydrodynamic background

We extend our previous work on the spin alignment of the ϕ vector meson in the hadronic phase of the quark gluon plasma, by including effects of nucleon scatterings. The emission rates are calculated in a realistic hydrodynamic background simulated with the code FLUIDuM, for different beam energies. We find that all the effects taken into account cannot explain the out-of-plane spin alignment of the ϕ meson observed experimentally.