Quantized Chiral Magnetic Current from Reconnections of Magnetic Flux

We introduce a new mechanism for the chiral magnetic effect that does not require an initial chirality imbalance. The chiral magnetic current is generated by reconnections of magnetic flux that change the magnetic helicity of the system. The resulting current is entirely determined by the change of magnetic helicity, and it is quantized.

Figure 1

Current generation associated with the unlinking of a simple link of two flux tubes. The solid arrows denote the directions of the magnetic field, and the dotted arrows indicate the directions of the generated CME currents.

Figure 2

A magnetic flux coming into a ring of another flux tube.