Maxwell-Chern-Simons Hydrodynamics for the Chiral Magnetic Effect

Abstract

The rate of vacuum changing topological solutions of the gluon field, sphalerons, is estimated to be large at the typical temperatures of heavy-ion collisions, particularly at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider. Such windings in the gluon field are expected to produce parity-odd bubbles, which cause separation of positively and negatively charged quarks along the axis of the external magnetic field. This chiral magnetic effect can be mimicked by Chern-Simons modified electromagnetism. Here we present a model of relativistic hydrodynamics including the effects of axial anomalies via the Chern-Simons term.

Comments: 4 pages. Eqns (16), (26) and (28) are corrected. Version includes the erratum Phys. Rev. C 84, 019903(E) (2011)