Anomalous transport model study of chiral magnetic effects in heavy ion collisions

TL;DR

This study uses an anomalous transport model to explore how magnetic fields influence the elliptic flows of quarks and antiquarks in heavy ion collisions, revealing a charge-dependent flow splitting consistent with experimental observations.

Contribution

It introduces a model that accounts for magnetic field effects on quark dynamics, highlighting the importance of the Lorentz force and chiral scattering channels in the chiral magnetic wave phenomenon.

Findings

Electric quadrupole moment induced by magnetic fields.

Elliptic flow splitting between quarks and antiquarks.

Charge asymmetry dependence matches experimental data.

Abstract

Using an anomalous transport model for massless quarks and antiquarks, we study the effect of a magnetic field on the elliptic flows of quarks and antiquarks in relativistic heavy ion collisions. With initial conditions from a blast wave model and assuming that the strong magnetic field produced in non-central heavy ion collisions can last for a sufficiently long time, we obtain an appreciable electric quadrupole moment in the transverse plane of a heavy ion collision. The electric quadrupole moment subsequently leads to a splitting between the elliptic flows of quarks and antiquarks. The slope of the charge asymmetry dependence of the elliptic flow difference between positively and negatively charged particles is positive, which is expected from the chiral magnetic wave formed in the produced QGP and observed in experiments at the BNL Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider, only if the Lorentz force acting on the charged particles is neglected and the quark-antiquark scattering is assumed to be dominated by the chirality changing channel.