skip to main content


Title: The overdamped chiral magnetic wave
About eight years ago it was predicted theoretically that a charged chiral plasma could support the propagation of the so-called chiral magnetic waves, which are driven by the anomalous chiral magnetic and chiral separation effects. This prompted intensive experimental efforts in search of signatures of such waves in relativistic heavy-ion collisions. In fact, several experiments have already reported a tentative detection of the predicted signal, albeit with a significant background contribution. Here, we critically reanalyze the theoretical foundations for the existence of the chiral magnetic waves. We find that the commonly used background-field approximation is not sufficient for treating the waves in hot chiral plasmas in the long-wavelength limit. Indeed, the back-reaction from dynamically induced electromagnetic fields turns the chiral magnetic wave into a diffusive mode. While the situation is slightly better in the strongly-coupled near-critical regime of quark-gluon plasma created in heavy-ion collisions, the chiral magnetic wave is still strongly overdamped due to the effects of electrical conductivity and charge diffusion.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
1713950
NSF-PAR ID:
10157661
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ;
Date Published:
Journal Name:
XIII Quark Confinement and the Hadron Spectrum
Volume:
336
Page Range / eLocation ID:
029
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
More Like this
  1. null (Ed.)
    In this article, there are 18 sections discussing various current topics in the field of relativistic heavy-ion collisions and related phenomena, which will serve as a snapshot of the current state of the art. Section 1 reviews experimental results of some recent light-flavored particle production data from ALICE collaboration. Other sections are mostly theoretical in nature. Very strong but transient magnetic field created in relativistic heavy-ion collisions could have important observational consequences. This has generated a lot of theoretical activity in the last decade. Sections 2, 7, 9, 10 and 11 deal with the effects of the magnetic field on the properties of the QCD matter. More specifically, Sec. 2 discusses mass of [Formula: see text] in the linear sigma model coupled to quarks at zero temperature. In Sec. 7, one-loop calculation of the anisotropic pressure are discussed in the presence of strong magnetic field. In Sec. 9, chiral transition and chiral susceptibility in the NJL model is discussed for a chirally imbalanced plasma in the presence of magnetic field using a Wigner function approach. Sections 10 discusses electrical conductivity and Hall conductivity of hot and dense hadron gas within Boltzmann approach and Sec. 11 deals with electrical resistivity of quark matter in presence of magnetic field. There are several unanswered questions about the QCD phase diagram. Sections 3, 11 and 18 discuss various aspects of the QCD phase diagram and phase transitions. Recent years have witnessed interesting developments in foundational aspects of hydrodynamics and their application to heavy-ion collisions. Sections 12 and 15–17 of this article probe some aspects of this exciting field. In Sec. 12, analytical solutions of viscous Landau hydrodynamics in 1+1D are discussed. Section 15 deals with derivation of hydrodynamics from effective covariant kinetic theory. Sections 16 and 17 discuss hydrodynamics with spin and analytical hydrodynamic attractors, respectively. Transport coefficients together with their temperature- and density-dependence are essential inputs in hydrodynamical calculations. Sections 5, 8 and 14 deal with calculation/estimation of various transport coefficients (shear and bulk viscosity, thermal conductivity, relaxation times, etc.) of quark matter and hadronic matter. Sections 4, 6 and 13 deal with interesting new developments in the field. Section 4 discusses color dipole gluon distribution function at small transverse momentum in the form of a series of Bells polynomials. Section 6 discusses the properties of Higgs boson in the quark–gluon plasma using Higgs–quark interaction and calculate the Higgs decays into quark and anti-quark, which shows a dominant on-shell contribution in the bottom-quark channel. Section 13 discusses modification of coalescence model to incorporate viscous corrections and application of this model to study hadron production from a dissipative quark–gluon plasma. 
    more » « less
  2. Abstract The chiral magnetic effect (CME) is a novel transport phenomenon, arising from the interplay between quantum anomalies and strong magnetic fields in chiral systems. In high-energy nuclear collisions, the CME may survive the expansion of the quark-gluon plasma fireball and be detected in experiments. Over the past two decades, experimental searches for the CME have attracted extensive interest at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) and the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). The main goal of this study is to investigate three pertinent experimental approaches: the correlator, the R correlator, and the signed balance functions. We exploit simple Monte Carlo simulations and a realistic event generator (EBE-AVFD) to verify the equivalence of the core components among these methods and to ascertain their sensitivities to the CME signal and the background contributions for the isobar collisions at the RHIC. 
    more » « less
  3. The validity of conventional Ohm’s law is tested in the context of a rapidly evolving quark–gluon plasma produced in heavy-ion collisions. Here, we discuss the electromagnetic response using an analytical solution in kinetic theory. As conjectured previously, after switching on an electric field in a nonexpanding plasma, the time-dependent current is given by J(t)=(1−e−t/τ0)σ0E, where τ0 is the transport relaxation time and σ0 is the steady-state electrical conductivity. Such an incomplete electromagnetic response reduces the efficiency of the magnetic flux trapping in the quark–gluon plasma, and may prevent the observation of the chiral magnetic effect. Here, we extend the study to the case of a rapidly expanding plasma. We find that the decreasing temperature and the increasing transport relaxation time have opposite effects on the electromagnetic response. While the former suppresses the time-dependent conductivity, the latter enhances it. 
    more » « less
  4. The spectrum of collective excitations in Weyl materials is studied by using a consistent hydro- dynamics. The corresponding framework includes the vortical and chiral anomaly effects, as well as the dependence on the separation between the Weyl nodes in energy b0 and momentum b. The latter are introduced via the Chern–Simons contributions to the electric current and charge densities in the Maxwell’s equations. It is found that, even in the absence of a background magnetic field, certain collective excitations (e.g., the helicon-like modes and anomalous Hall waves) are strongly affected by the chiral shift b. In a background magnetic field, the existence of distinctive longi- tudinal and transverse anomalous Hall waves with a linear dispersion relation is predicted. They originate from the oscillations of the electric charge density and electromagnetic fields, in which different components of the fields are connected via the anomalous Hall effect in Weyl semimetals. 
    more » « less
  5. Abstract Coulomb collisions provide plasma resistivity and diffusion but in many low-density astrophysical plasmas such collisions between particles are extremely rare. Scattering of particles by electromagnetic waves can lower the plasma conductivity. Such anomalous resistivity due to wave-particle interactions could be crucial to many processes, including magnetic reconnection. It has been suggested that waves provide both diffusion and resistivity, which can support the reconnection electric field, but this requires direct observation to confirm. Here, we directly quantify anomalous resistivity, viscosity, and cross-field electron diffusion associated with lower hybrid waves using measurements from the four Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) spacecraft. We show that anomalous resistivity is approximately balanced by anomalous viscosity, and thus the waves do not contribute to the reconnection electric field. However, the waves do produce an anomalous electron drift and diffusion across the current layer associated with magnetic reconnection. This leads to relaxation of density gradients at timescales of order the ion cyclotron period, and hence modifies the reconnection process. 
    more » « less