Testing the Chiral Magnetic and Chiral Vortical Effects in Heavy Ion Collisions

Journal Article · Fri Feb 11 04:00:00 EST 2011 · Physical Review Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PHYSREVLETT.106.062301· OSTI ID:21532295

Kharzeev, Dmitri E ^[1]; Son, Dam T ^[2]

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1. Department of Physics and Astronomy, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, New York 11794-3800 (United States)
2. Institute for Nuclear Theory, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195-1550 (United States)

We devise a test of the chiral magnetic and chiral vortical effects (CME and CVE) in relativistic heavy ion collisions that relies only on the general properties of triangle anomalies. We show that the ratio R{sub EB}=J{sub E}/J{sub B} of charge J{sub E} and baryon J{sub B} currents for CME is R{sub EB}{sup CME}{yields}{infinity} for three light flavors of quarks (N{sub f}=3), and R{sub EB}{sup CME}=5 for N{sub f}=2, whereas for CVE it is R{sub EB}{sup CVE}=0 for N{sub f}=3 and R{sub EB}{sup CME}=1/2 for N{sub f}=2. The physical world with light u,d quarks and a heavier s quark is in between the N{sub f}=2 and N{sub f}=3 cases; therefore, the ratios R{sub EB} for CME and CVE should differ by over an order of magnitude providing a possibility to separate clearly the CME and CVE contributions. In both cases, there has to be a positive correlation between the charge and baryon number asymmetries that can be tested on the event-by-event basis.

• OSTI ID: 21532295
• Journal Information: Physical Review Letters, Journal Name: Physical Review Letters Journal Issue: 6 Vol. 106; ISSN 0031-9007; ISSN PRLTAO
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS
ASYMMETRY
BARYON NUMBER
CHIRALITY
COMPOSITE MODELS
CORRELATIONS
D QUARKS
ELEMENTARY PARTICLES
ENERGY RANGE
FERMIONS
FLAVOR MODEL
HEAVY ION REACTIONS
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
NUCLEAR REACTIONS
PARTICLE MODELS
PARTICLE PROPERTIES
QUARK MODEL
QUARKS
RELATIVISTIC RANGE
S QUARKS
STRANGE PARTICLES
TESTING