Event-by-event generation of electromagnetic fields in heavy-ion collisions

TL;DR

This paper calculates electromagnetic fields in heavy-ion collisions event-by-event using the HIJING model, revealing strong, complex fields that influence quark-gluon plasma behavior and hadronic observables.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed event-by-event analysis of electromagnetic fields in heavy-ion collisions, including their time evolution and spatial distribution.

Findings

Strong electromagnetic fields are present on an event-by-event basis.

Magnetic fields perpendicular to the reaction plane are significant after averaging.

Electromagnetic response affects the evolution of the quark-gluon plasma.

Abstract

We compute the electromagnetic fields generated in heavy-ion collisions by using the HIJING model. Although after averaging over many events only the magnetic field perpendicular to the reaction plane is sizable, we find very strong magnetic and electric fields both parallel and perpendicular to the reaction plane on the event-by-event basis. We study the time evolution and the spatial distribution of these fields. Especially, the electromagnetic response of the quark-gluon plasma can give non-trivial evolution of the electromagnetic fields. The implications of the strong electromagnetic fields on the hadronic observables are also discussed.