Axial Chemical Potential Research Articles

Frequency dependence of the Chiral Vortical Effect

We study the frequency dependence of all the chiral vortical and magnetic conductivities for a relativistic gas of free chiral fermions and for a strongly coupled conformal field theory with holographic dual in four dimensions. Both systems have gauge and gravitational anomalies, and we compute their contribution to the conductivities. The chiral vortical conductivities and the chiral magnetic conductivity in the energy current show a frequency dependence in the form of a delta centered at zero frequency. This highly discontinuous behavior is a natural consequence of the Ward identities that include the energy momentum tensor. We discuss the physical interpretation of this result and its possible implications for the quark gluon plasma as created in heavy ion collisions. In the Appendix we discuss why the chiral magnetic effect seems to vanish in the consistent current for a particular implementation of the axial chemical potential.

Holographic chiral electric separation effect

We investigate the chiral electric separation effect, where an axial current is induced by an electric field in the presence of both vector and axial chemical potentials, in a strongly coupled plasma via the Sakai-Sugimoto model with an $U(1)_R\times U(1)_L$ symmetry. By introducing different chemical potentials in $U(1)_R$ and $U(1)_L$ sectors, we compute the axial direct current (DC) conductivity stemming from the chiral current and the normal DC conductivity. We find that the axial conductivity is approximately proportional to the product of the axial and vector chemical potentials for arbitrary magnitudes of the chemical potentials. We also evaluate the axial alternating current (AC) conductivity induced by a frequency-dependent electric field, where the oscillatory behavior with respect to the frequency is observed.

Chemical potentials and parity breaking: the Nambu–Jona-Lasinio model

We consider the ‘two flavour’ Nambu–Jona-Lasinio model in the presence of a vector and an axial external chemical potential and study the phase structure of the model at zero temperature. The Nambu–Jona-Lasinio model is often used as a toy replica of QCD and it is therefore interesting to explore the consequences of adding external vector and axial chemical potentials in this model, mostly motivated by claims that such external drivers could trigger a phase where parity could be broken in QCD. We are also motivated by some lattice analysis that attempt to understand the nature of the so-called Aoki phase using this simplified model. Analogies and differences with the expected behaviour in QCD are discussed and the limitations of the model are pointed out.

Non-stationary measurements of Chiral Magnetic Effect

We discuss the Chiral Magnetic Effect from the quantum theory of measurements point of view for non-stationary measurements. The effect of anisotropy for fluctuations of electric currents in a magnetic field is addressed. It is shown that anisotropy caused by nonzero axial chemical potential is indistinguishable in this framework from anisotropy caused by finite measurement time or finite lifetime of the magnetic field, and in all cases it is related to abelian triangle anomaly. Possible P-odd effects in central heavy-ion collisions (where the Chiral Magnetic Effect is absent) are discussed in this context. This paper is dedicated to the memory of Professor Mikhail Polikarpov (1952–2013).

An effective QCD Lagrangian in the presence of an axial chemical potential

We consider the low energy realization of QCD in terms of mesons when an axial chemical potential is present; a situation that may be relevant in heavy ion collisions. We shall demonstrate that the presence of an axial charge has profound consequences on meson physics. The most notorious effect is the appearance of an explicit source of parity breaking. The eigenstates of strong interactions do not have a definite parity and interactions that would otherwise be forbidden compete with the familiar ones. In this work we focus on scalars and pseudoscalars that are described by a generalized linear sigma model. We comment briefly on the screening role of axial vectors in formation of effective axial charge and on the possible experimental relevance of our results, whose consequences may have been already seen at RHIC.

Correction to the chiral magnetic effect from axial-vector interaction

The recent lattice calculation at finite axial chemical potential suggests that the induced current density of the chiral magnetic effect (CME) is somehow suppressed comparing with the standard analytical formula. We show in a NJL-type model of QCD that such a suppression is a natural result when considering the influence of the attractive axial-vector interaction. We point out that the lattice result doesn't need to be quantitatively consistent with the analytical formula due to the chirality density-density correlation. We also investigate the nonperturbative effect of instanton molecules on the CME. Since an unconventional repulsive axial-vector interaction is induced, the CME will be enhanced significantly by the instanton-anti-instanton pairings. Such a prediction needs to be tested by more improved lattice simulations. We further demonstrate that the axial-vector interaction plays an important role on the $T-\mu_A$ phase diagram.

Hot quark matter with an axial chemical potential

We analyze the phase diagram of hot quark matter in presence of an axial chemical potential, ${\ensuremath{\mu}}_{5}$. The latter is introduced to mimic the chirality transitions induced, in hot quantum chromodynamics, by the strong sphaleron configurations. In particular, we study the curvature of the critical line at small ${\ensuremath{\mu}}_{5}$, the effects of a finite quark mass and of a vector interaction. Moreover, we build the mixed phase at the first order phase transition line and draw the phase diagram in the chiral density and temperature plane. We finally compute the full topological susceptibility in presence of a background of topological charge.

Anomalous hydrodynamics for chiral superfluid

Starting from low energy effective chiral Lagrangian with gauged Wess-Zumino Witten term, we have derived a hydrodynamic theory for chiral superfluid. It is a non-abelian hydrodynamics at zero temperature with only superfluid components. With an external electromagnetic field and baryonic and axial baryonic chemical potentials turned on, we are able to identify analogs of various anomaly induced term in normal hydrodynamics, including chiral vortical effect, chiral magnetic effect and chiral electric effect. As an example, we solved the hydrodynamic equations for the ground state and observed the chiral magnetic effect and chiral separation in the confined phase.

A chiral magnetic effect from AdS/CFT with flavor

For (3+1)-dimensional fermions, a net axial charge and external magnetic field can lead to a current parallel to the magnetic field. This is the chiral magnetic effect. We use gauge-gravity duality to study the chiral magnetic effect in large-Nc, strongly-coupled N=4 supersymmetric SU(Nc) Yang-Mills theory coupled to a number Nf << Nc of N=2 hypermultiplets in the Nc representation of SU(Nc), i.e. flavor fields. Specifically, we introduce an external magnetic field and a time-dependent phase for the mass of the flavor fields, which is equivalent to an axial chemical potential for the flavor fermions, and we compute holographically the resulting chiral magnetic current. For massless flavors we find that the current takes the value determined by the axial anomaly. For massive flavors the current appears only in the presence of a condensate of pseudo-scalar mesons, and has a smaller value than for massless flavors, dropping to zero for sufficiently large mass or magnetic field. The axial symmetry in our system is part of the R-symmetry, and the states we study involve a net flow of axial charge to the adjoint sector from an external source coupled to the flavors. We compute the time rate of change of axial charge and of energy both in field theory and from holography, with perfect agreement. In contrast to previous holographic models of the chiral magnetic effect, in our system the vector current is conserved and gauge-invariant without any special counterterms.

A non-homogeneous ground state of the low-temperature Sakai-Sugimoto model

We study the instability of the low-temperature QCD vacuum at large-N_c due to an axial chemical potential, using the holographic Sakai-Sugimoto model. We explicitly construct the ground state of the theory, which corresponds to a translationally non-invariant configuration.

Chiral magnetic wave

We consider a relativistic plasma containing charged chiral fermions in an external magnetic field, e.g a chirally symmetric quark-gluon plasma created in relativistic heavy ion collisions. We show that triangle anomalies imply the existence of a new type of collective gapless excitation in this system that stems from the coupling between the density waves of the electric and chiral charges; we call it "the Chiral Magnetic Wave" (CMW). The CMW exists even in a neutral plasma, i.e. in the absence of the axial and vector chemical potentials. We demonstrate the existence of CMW and study its properties using three different approaches: i) relativistic magnetohydrodynamics; ii) dimensional reduction to $(1+1)$ Sine-Gordon model, appropriate in a strong magnetic field; and iii) holographic QCD (Sakai-Sugimoto model), appropriate at strong coupling. We also briefly discuss the phenomenological implications of the CMW for heavy ion collisions.

Holographic Chiral Currents in a Magnetic Field

In the presence of a quark chemical potential, a magnetic field induces an axial current in the direction of the magnetic field. We compute this current in the Sakai-Sugimoto model, a holographic model which, in a certain limit, is dual to large-N_c QCD. We also compute the analogous vector current, for which an axial chemical potential is formally introduced. This vector current can potentially be observed via charge separation in heavy-ion collisions. After implementing the correct axial anomaly in the Sakai-Sugimoto model we find an axial current in accordance with previous studies and a vanishing vector current, in apparent contrast to previous weak-coupling calculations.

Holographic chiral magnetic spiral

We study the ground state of baryonic/axial matter at zero temperature chiral symmetry broken phase under a large magnetic field, in the framework of holographic QCD by Sakai-Sugimoto. Our study is motivated by a recent proposal of chiral magnetic spiral phase that has been argued to be favored against previously studied phase of homogeneous distribution of axial/baryonic currents in terms of meson super-currents dictated by triangle anomalies in QCD. Our results provide an existence proof of chiral magnetic spiral in strong coupling regime via holography, at least for large axial chemical potentials, whereas we don’t find the phenomenon in the case of purely baryonic chemical potential.

Anomalies and the chiral magnetic effect in the Sakai-Sugimoto model

In the chiral magnetic effect an imbalance in the number of left- and right-handed quarks gives rise to an electromagnetic current parallel to the magnetic field produced in noncentral heavy-ion collisions. The chiral imbalance may be induced by topologically nontrivial gluon configurations via the QCD axial anomaly, while the resulting electromagnetic current itself is a consequence of the QED anomaly. In the Sakai-Sugimoto model, which in a certain limit is dual to large-N_c QCD, we discuss the proper implementation of the QED axial anomaly, the (ambiguous) definition of chiral currents, and the calculation of the chiral magnetic effect. We show that this model correctly contains the so-called consistent anomaly, but requires the introduction of a (holographic) finite counterterm to yield the correct covariant anomaly. Introducing net chirality through an axial chemical potential, we find a nonvanishing vector current only before including this counterterm. This seems to imply the absence of the chiral magnetic effect in this model. On the other hand, for a conventional quark chemical potential and large magnetic field, which is of interest in the physics of compact stars, we obtain a nontrivial result for the axial current that is in agreement with previous calculations and known exact results for QCD.

Holographic Chiral magnetic conductivity

We present holographic computations of the time-dependent chiral magnetic conductivity in the framework of gauge/gravity correspondence. Chiral magnetic effect is a phenomenon where an electromagnetic current parallel to an applied magnetic field is induced in the presence of a finite axial chemical potential. Motivated by a recent weak-coupling perturbative QCD calculation, our aim is to provide a couple of complementary computations for strongly coupled regime which might be relevant for strongly coupled RHIC plasma. We take two prototypical holographic set-ups for computing chiral magnetic conductivity; the first model is Einstein gravity with U(1)L × U(1)R Maxwell theory, and our second set-up is based on the Sakai-Sugimoto model in a deconfined and chiral symmetry restored phase. While the former takes into account full back-reaction while the latter not, the common feature is an important role played by the appropriate 5-dimensional Chern-Simons term corresponding to the 4-dimensional axial anomaly.