The Chiral Magnetic Effect and anomaly-induced transport

Abstract

The Chiral Magnetic Effect (CME) is the phenomenon of electric charge separation along the external magnetic field that is induced by the chirality imbalance. The CME is a macroscopic quantum effect — it is a manifestation of the chiral anomaly creating a collective motion in Dirac sea. Because the chirality imbalance is related to the global topology of gauge fields, the CME current is topologically protected and hence non-dissipative even in the presence of strong interactions. As a result, the CME and related quantum phenomena affect the hydrodynamical and transport behavior of systems possessing chiral fermions, from the quark–gluon plasma to chiral materials. The goal of the present review is to provide an elementary introduction into the main ideas underlying the physics of CME, a historical perspective, and a guide to the rapidly growing literature on this topic.