Testing the chiral magnetic and chiral vortical effects in heavy ion collisions

Kharzeev, Dmitri E.; Son, Dam T.

doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.106.062301

Testing the chiral magnetic and chiral vortical effects in heavy ion collisions

Dmitri E. Kharzeev
(
- SUNY, Stony Brook and
- Brookhaven
)
,
Dam T. Son
(
- Washington U., Seattle
)

Oct, 2010

4 pages

Published in:

Phys.Rev.Lett. 106 (2011) 062301

e-Print:

1010.0038 [hep-ph]

DOI:

10.1103/PhysRevLett.106.062301

Report number:

BNL-94104-2010-JA,
INT-PUB-10-053

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Abstract: (arXiv)

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_{EB}=J_E/J_B

of charge

J_E

and baryon

J_B

currents for CME is

R^{\rm CME}_{EB} \to \infty

for three light flavors of quarks (

N_f =3

), and

R^{\rm CME}_{EB} = 5

for

N_f =2

, whereas for CVE it is

R^{\rm CVE}_{EB} =0

for

N_f =3

and

R^{\rm CME}_{EB} = 1/2

for

N_f =2

. The physical world with light

u,d

quarks and a heavier

s

quark is in between the

N_f =2

and

N_f =3

cases/ therefore, the ratios

R_{EB}

for CME and CVE should differ by over an order of magnitude. Since the ratio of electric charge and baryon asymmetries is proportional to

R_{EB}

, the measurement of baryon and electric charge asymmetry fluctuations should allow 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. At a lower collision energy, as the baryon number density increases and the CVE potentially plays a role, we expect the emergence of the baryon number asymmetry.

25.75.Ag
12.38.Mh
11.40.Ha
baryon number: asymmetry
charge: electric
charge: asymmetry
baryon: asymmetry
baryon number: density
heavy ion: scattering
chiral

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