Hydrodynamics with chiral anomaly and charge separation in relativistic heavy ion collisions

Journal Article · 01 May 2016 · Physics Letters B

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physletb.2016.02.065 · OSTI ID:1240207

Yin, Yi ; Liao, Jinfeng

Matter with chiral fermions is microscopically described by theory with quantum anomaly and macroscopically described (at low energy) by anomalous hydrodynamics. For such systems in the presence of external magnetic field and chirality imbalance, a charge current is generated along the magnetic field direction ₋ a phenomenon known as the Chiral Magnetic Effect (CME). The quark- gluon plasma created in relativistic heavy ion collisions provides an (approximate) example, for which the CME predicts a charge separation perpendicular to the collisional reaction plane. Charge correlation measurements designed for the search of such signal have been done at RHIC and the LHC for which the interpretations, however, remain unclear due to contamination by background effects that are collective flow driven, theoretically poorly constrained, and experimentally hard to separate. Using anomalous (and viscous) hydrodynamic simulations, we make a first attempt at quantifying contributions to observed charge correlations from both CME and background effects in one and same framework. We discuss the implications for the search of CME.

• Research Organization: Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), Upton, NY (United States). Riken Research Center
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Science (SC)
• Grant/Contract Number: AC02-98CH10886; SC0012704; PHY-1352368
• OSTI ID: 1240207
• Alternate ID(s): OSTI ID: 1260152
• Report Number(s): BNL-108043-2016-JA; S0370269316001611; PII: S0370269316001611
• Journal Information: Physics Letters B, Journal Name: Physics Letters B Vol. 756 Journal Issue: C; ISSN 0370-2693
• Publisher: ElsevierCopyright Statement
• Country of Publication: Netherlands
• Language: English