Chiral magnetic effect in 2+1 flavor QCD+QED

TL;DR

This paper presents first-principles lattice QCD+QED simulations to study the chiral magnetic effect in 2+1 flavor QCD at high temperatures, aiming to confirm and understand experimental observations in heavy-ion collisions.

Contribution

It provides the first dynamical lattice simulation of the chiral magnetic effect in 2+1 flavor QCD+QED above the critical temperature.

Findings

Observation of electric charge separation consistent with the chiral magnetic effect

Simulations performed in fixed topological sectors at high temperature

Results support the potential observability of the effect in heavy-ion collisions

Abstract

The exciting possibility of direct observation of QCD instantons in heavy-ion collisions has recently been proposed by Kharzeev. The underlying phenomenon, known as the chiral magnetic effect, may have been observed recently at RHIC, and a first principles calculation is needed to confirm and understand the results. The chiral magnetic effect is thought to be visible in the symmetric phase, at temperatures above the QCD critical temperature, and in the presence of an external magnetic field. We report on first 2+1 flavor, domain wall fermion, QCD+QED dynamical simulations above the critical temperature, in a fixed topological sector(s), which are used to study the electric charge separation produced by the effect.