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Chiral Magnetic Spirals

Gökçe Başar, Gerald V. Dunne, and Dmitri E. Kharzeev
Phys. Rev. Lett. 104, 232301 – Published 7 June 2010
Physics logo See Synopsis: Quark gluon solenoid

Abstract

We argue that the presence of a very strong magnetic field in the chirally broken phase induces inhomogeneous expectation values, of a spiral nature along the magnetic field axis, for the currents of charge and chirality, when there is finite baryon density or an imbalance between left and right chiralities. This “chiral magnetic spiral” is a gapless excitation transporting the currents of (i) charge (at finite chirality), and (ii) chirality (at finite baryon density) along the direction of the magnetic field. In both cases it also induces in the transverse directions oscillating currents of charge and chirality. In heavy ion collisions, the chiral magnetic spiral possibly provides contributions both to the out-of-plane and the in-plane dynamical charge fluctuations recently observed at BNL RHIC.

  • Figure
  • Figure
  • Received 17 March 2010

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.104.232301

©2010 American Physical Society

Synopsis

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Quark gluon solenoid

Published 18 June 2010

Theorists gain insight into how the quark-gluon plasma distinguishes left from right.

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Authors & Affiliations

Gökçe Başar1, Gerald V. Dunne1, and Dmitri E. Kharzeev2

  • 1Department of Physics, University of Connecticut, Storrs Connecticut 06269, USA
  • 2Department of Physics, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, New York 11973, USA

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Issue

Vol. 104, Iss. 23 — 11 June 2010

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