  The hot and dense matter generated in heavy-ion collisions contains intricate
vortical structure in which the local fluid vorticity can be very large. Such
vorticity can polarize the spin of the produced particles. We study the
event-by-event generation of the so-called thermal vorticity in Au + Au
collisions at energy region $\sqrt{s}=7.7-200$ GeV and calculate its time
evolution, spatial distribution, etc., in a multiphase transport (AMPT) model.
We then compute the spin polarization of the $\Lambda$ and $\bar{\Lambda}$
hyperons as a function of $\sqrt{s}$, transverse momentum $p_T$, rapidity, and
azimuthal angle. Furthermore, we study the harmonic flow of the spin, in a
manner analogous to the harmonic flow of the particle number. The measurement
of the spin harmonic flow may provide a way to probe the vortical structure in
heavy-ion collisions. We also discuss the spin polarization of $\Xi^0$ and
$\Omega^-$ hyperons which may provide further information about the spin
polarization mechanism of hadrons.
