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A<sc>bstract</sc> Using first-principles field-theoretic methods, we investigate neutrino emission from strongly magnetized dense quark matter under conditions relevant to compact stars. We develop a customized approximation that fully accounts for the Landau-level quantization of electron states while neglecting such quantization for quarks. This approach is well-justified in dense quark matter, where the chemical potentials of up and down quarks significantly exceed those of electrons. Our analysis provides a detailed exploration of the influence of strong magnetic fields on neutrino emission, including both the modification of the total emission rate and the emergence of emission asymmetry relative to the magnetic field direction. We further examine the role of temperature in smoothing the oscillatory behavior of neutrino emission as a function of magnetic field strength. Additionally, we study the interplay between the Landau-level quantization of electrons and the Fermi-liquid effects of quarks in modifying the phase space of relevant weak processes. Finally, we briefly discuss the broader implications of magnetic fields on stellar cooling processes and the potential contribution of asymmetric neutrino emission to pulsar kicks. 

Abstract We investigate electrical charge transport in hot magnetized plasma using first-principles quantum field theoretical methods. By employing Kubo’s linear response theory, we express the electrical conductivity tensor in terms of the fermion damping rate in the Landau-level representation. Utilizing leading-order results for the damping rates from a recent study within a gauge theory, we derive the transverse and longitudinal conductivities for a strongly magnetized plasma. The analytical expressions reveal drastically different mechanisms that explain the high anisotropy of charge transport in a magnetized plasma. Specifically, the transverse conductivity is suppressed, while the longitudinal conductivity is enhanced by a strong magnetic field. As in the case of zero magnetic field, longitudinal conduction is determined by the probability of charge carriers to remain in their quantum states without damping. In contrast, transverse conduction critically relies on quantum transitions between Landau levels, effectively lifting charge trapping in localized Landau orbits. We examine the temperature and magnetic field dependence of the transverse and longitudinal electrical conductivities over a wide range of parameters and investigate the effects of a nonzero chemical potential. Additionally, we extend our analysis to strongly coupled quark-gluon plasma and study the impact of the coupling constant on the anisotropy of electrical charge transport. 

We investigate the emission of circularly polarized photons from a magnetized quark-gluon plasma with nonzero quark-number and chiral charge chemical potentials. These chemical potentials qualitatively influence the differential emission rates of circularly polarized photons. A nonzero net electric charge density, induced by quark-number chemical potentials, enhances the overall emission of one circular polarization over the other, while a nonzero chiral charge density introduces a spatial asymmetry in the emission with respect to reflection in the transverse plane. The signs of the electrical and chiral charge densities determine which circular polarization dominates overall and whether the emission preferentially aligns with or opposes the magnetic field. Based on these findings, we propose that polarized photon emission is a promising observable for characterizing the quark-gluon plasma produced in heavy-ion collisions. Published by the American Physical Society2024 

We employ first-principles quantum field theoretical methods to investigate the longitudinal and transverse electrical conductivities of a strongly magnetized hot quantum electrodynamics (QED) plasma at the leading order in coupling. The analysis employs the fermion damping rate in the Landau-level representation, calculated with full kinematics and exact amplitudes of one-to-two and two-to-one QED processes. In the relativistic regime, both conductivities exhibit an approximate scaling behavior described by ${\sigma }_{\parallel ,\perp }=T{\tilde{\sigma }}_{\parallel ,\perp }$, where ${\tilde{\sigma }}_{\parallel ,\perp }$are functions of the dimensionless ratio $\left|eB\right|/T^2$(with $T$denoting temperature and $B$magnetic field strength). We argue that the mechanisms for the transverse and longitudinal conductivities differ significantly, leading to a strong suppression of the former in comparison to the latter. Published by the American Physical Society2024 

We derive a general expression for the fermion self-energy in a hot magnetized plasma by using the Landau-level representation. In the one-loop approximation, the Dirac structure of the self-energy is characterized by five different functions that depend on the Landau-level index $n$and the longitudinal momentum $p_z$. We derive general expressions for all five functions and obtain closed-form expressions for their imaginary parts. The latter receive contributions from three types of on shell processes, which are interpreted in terms of Landau-level transitions, accompanied by a single photon (gluon) emission or absorption. By making use of the imaginary parts of the self-energy functions, we also derive the Landau-level dependent fermion damping rates ${\mathrm{\Gamma }}_n\left(p_z\right)$and study them numerically in a wide range of model parameters. We also demonstrate that the two-spin degeneracy of the Landau levels is lifted by the one-loop self-energy corrections. While the spin splitting of the damping rates is small, it may be important for some spin and chiral effects. We argue that the general method and the numerical results for the rates can have interesting applications in heavy-ion physics, astrophysics, and cosmology, where strongly magnetized QED or QCD plasmas are ubiquitous. Published by the American Physical Society2024 

We study the higher-order anisotropy coefficients $$v_4$$ and $$v_6$$ in the photon and dilepton emission from a hot magnetized quark-gluon plasma. Together with the earlier predictions for $$v_2$$, these results show a distinctive pattern of the anisotropy coefficients in several kinematic regimes. In the case of photon emission, nonzero coefficients $$v_n$$ (with even $$n$$) have opposite signs at small and large values of the transverse momentum (i.e., $$k_T\lesssim \sqrt{|eB|}$$ and $$k_T\gtrsim \sqrt{|eB|}$$, respectively). Additionally, the $$v_n$$ signs alternate with increasing $$n$$, and their approximate values decrease as $1/n^2$ in magnitude. The anisotropy of dilepton emission is well pronounced only at large transverse momenta and small invariant masses (i.e., when $$k_T\gtrsim \sqrt{|eB|}$$ and $$M\lesssim \sqrt{|eB|}$$). The corresponding $$v_4$$ and $$v_6$$ coefficients are of the same magnitude and show a similar alternating sign pattern with increasing $$n$$ as in the photon emission. 

The Gribov-Zwanziger prescription applied within Yang-Mills theory is demonstrated to be an efficient method for refining the theory’s infrared dynamics. We study the collisional energy loss experienced by a high-energetic test parton as it traverses through the Grivov plasma at finite temperature. To achieve this, we employ a semiclassical approach that considers the parton’s energy loss while accounting for the backreaction induced by the polarization effects due to its motion in the medium. The polarization tensor of the medium is estimated within a nonperturbative resummation considering the Gribov-Zwanziger approach. The modification of the gluon and ghost loops due to the presence of the Gribov parameter plays a vital role in our estimation. We observe that the nonperturbative interactions have a sizable effect on the parton energy loss. Further, we discuss the implications of our findings in the context of relativistic heavy-ion collisions. 

We investigate the differential emission rate of neutral scalar bosons from a highly magnetized relativistic plasma. We show that three processes contribute at the leading order: particle splitting ($$\psi\rightarrow \psi+\phi $$), antiparticle splitting ($$\bar{\psi} \rightarrow \bar{\psi}+\phi $$), and particle-antiparticle annihilation ($$\psi + \bar{\psi}\rightarrow \phi $$). This is in contrast to the scenario with zero magnetic field, where only the annihilation processes contribute to boson production. We examine the impact of Landau-level quantization on the energy dependence of the rate and investigate the angular distribution of emitted scalar bosons. The differential rate resulting from both (anti)particle splitting and annihilation processes are typically suppressed in the direction of the magnetic field and enhanced in perpendicular directions. Overall, the background magnetic field significantly amplifies the total emission rate. We speculate that our model calculations provide valuable theoretical insights with potentially important applications. 

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.