QCD Flux Tubes and Anomaly Inflow

TL;DR

This paper explores the application of anomaly inflow mechanisms to QCD flux tubes, revealing topological and chiral effects through a novel decomposition and effective Lagrangian approach.

Contribution

It introduces a new framework combining the Callan-Harvey anomaly inflow with the Cho-Faddeev-Niemi decomposition to analyze QCD flux tubes and related phenomena.

Findings

Quark zero modes in flux tubes are chiral and induce gauge anomalies.

A topological charge density term naturally arises from anomaly cancellation.

A phenomenological model describes flux tubes via a gauged Nambu-Jona-Lasinio Lagrangian.

Abstract

We apply the Callan-Harvey anomaly inflow mechanism to the study of QCD (chromoelectric) flux tubes, quark (pair)-creation and chiral magnetic effect, using new variables from the Cho-Faddeev-Niemi decomposition of the gauge potential. A phenomenological description of chromoelectric flux tubes is obtained by studying a gauged Nambu-Jona-Lasinio effective Lagrangian, derived from the original QCD Lagrangian. At the quantum level, quark condensates in the QCD vacuum may form a vortex-like structure in a chromoelectric flux tube. Quark zero modes trapped in the vortex are chiral and lead to a two-dimensional gauge anomaly. To cancel it an effective Chern-Simons coupling is needed and hence a topological charge density term naturally appears.