Pair Creation in Electric Flux Tube and Chiral Anomaly

Abstract

Using chiral anomaly, we discuss the pair creation of massless fermions under the effect of magnetic field $\vec{B}$ when an electric flux tube $\vec{E}$ parallel to $\vec{B}$ is switched on. The tube is axial symmetric and infinitely long. In the limit $B\gg E$, we can analytically obtain the spatial and temporal behaviors of the number density of the fermions, the azimuthal magnetic field generated by the fermions etc.. We find that the life time $t_c$ of the electric field is shorter as the width of the tube is narrower. Applying it to the glasma in high-energy heavy-ion collisions, we find that color electric field decays fast such as $t_c\simeq Q_s^{-1}$ with saturation momentum $Q_s$.

Comments: 7 pages, 4 figures