2018/07/12 by Patrick Copinger, Kenji Fukushima, Shi Pu · 52 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Chiral anomaly #Chirality (physics) #Condensed matter physics #Dark Matter and Cosmic Phenomena #Fermion #High-Energy Particle Collisions Research #Magnetic field #Nambu–Jona-Lasinio model #Pair production #Parity (physics) #Particle physics #Physics #Production (economics) #Pseudoscalar #Quantum electrodynamics #Quantum mechanics #Quantum, superfluid, helium dynamics #Quark #cond-mat.str-el #hep-ph #hep-th
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.121.261602
published in Physical Review Letters 121(26), 261602 (American Physical Society) · 5 pages, 2 figures
arxiv created 2018/07/12 · openalex publication_date 2018/12/28 · arxiv updated 2019/01/02 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
We elucidate chirality production under parity breaking constant electromagnetic fields, with which we clarify qualitative differences in and out of equilibrium. For a strong magnetic field the pair production from the Schwinger mechanism increments the chirality. The pair production rate is exponentially suppressed with mass according to the Schwinger formula, while the mass dependence of chirality production in the axial Ward identity appears in the pseudoscalar term only. We demonstrate that, in a real-time formulation with in and out states, the axial Ward identity with an in-in expectation value leads to a chirality production rate consistent with the Schwinger formula, while the axial anomaly with an in-out expectation value is canceled by the pseudoscalar condensate for any mass. We illuminate that such an in- and out-state formulation clarifies subtleties in the chiral magnetic effect in and out of equilibrium, and we discuss further applications to real-time condensates.