2025/02/13 by Yicheng Feng, Feng, Yicheng, S. A. Voloshin +3 · 2 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations #FOS: Physical sciences #High-Energy Particle Collisions Research #Nuclear Experiment (nucl-ex) #Nuclear Theory (nucl-th) #Solar and Space Plasma Dynamics
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2502.09742
openalex publication_date 2025/02/13 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
The chiral magnetic effect (CME) refers to generation of the electric current along a magnetic field in a chirally imbalanced system of quarks. The latter is predicted by quantum chromodynamics to arise from quark interaction with non-trivial topological fluctuations of the vacuum gluonic field. The CME has been actively searched for in relativistic heavy-ion collisions, where such gluonic field fluctuations and a strong magnetic field are believed to be present. The CME-sensitive observables are unfortunately subject to a possibly large non-CME background, and firm conclusions on a CME observation have not yet been reached. In this perspective, we review the experimental status and progress in the CME search, from the initial measurements more than a decade ago, to the dedicated program of isobar collisions in 2018 and the release of the isobar blind analysis result in 2022, to intriguing hints of a possible CME signal in Au+Au collisions, and discuss future prospects of a potential CME discovery in the anticipated high-statistic Au+Au collision data at the Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collider by 2025. We hope such a perspective will help sharpening our focus on the fundamental physics of the CME and steer its experimental search.