- Physical Review Journals
All JournalsPhysics Magazine

Physical Review D

Reuse & Permissions

It is not necessary to obtain permission to reuse this article or its components as it is available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI are maintained. Please note that some figures may have been included with permission from other third parties. It is your responsibility to obtain the proper permission from the rights holder directly for these figures.

Export citation

Export citation

Choose format for download:

Download Citation
  • Open Access

Chiral magnetic effect enhancement at lower collision energies

Sebastian Grieninger1,*, Sergio Morales-Tejera2,†, and Pau G. Romeu3,4,‡

  • *Contact author: sebastian.grieninger@stonybrook.edu
  • †Contact author: sergio.morales@e-uvt.ro
  • ‡Contact author: pau.garcia@uam.es
PDF

Phys. Rev. D 112, 036003 – Published 7 August, 2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/xgkt-1qsb

Abstract

We extend previous holographic studies of the chiral magnetic effect (CME) by incorporating a time-dependent magnetic field. Various magnetic field profiles proposed in the literature are implemented, and their impact on the CME signal is analyzed in both static and expanding backgrounds. Interestingly, the integrated chiral magnetic current can exhibit a nonmonotonic dependence on the collision energy. Our results suggest that the CME signal is enhanced at collision energies below s=200  GeV. In addition, we derive a quasiequilibrium formula for the chiral magnetic effect in the expanding background that is valid at late times.

View figure in article

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Article Text

References (80)

  1. V. Skokov, A. Yu. Illarionov, and V. Toneev, Estimate of the magnetic field strength in heavy-ion collisions, Int. J. Mod. Phys. A 24, 5925 (2009).
  2. Adam Bzdak and Vladimir Skokov, Event-by-event fluctuations of magnetic and electric fields in heavy ion collisions, Phys. Lett. B 710, 171 (2012).
  3. V. Voronyuk, V. D. Toneev, W. Cassing, E. L. Bratkovskaya, V. P. Konchakovski, and S. A. Voloshin, (Electro-)magnetic field evolution in relativistic heavy-ion collisions, Phys. Rev. C 83, 054911 (2011).
  4. Wei-Tian Deng and Xu-Guang Huang, Event-by-event generation of electromagnetic fields in heavy-ion collisions, Phys. Rev. C 85, 044907 (2012).
  5. Kirill Tuchin, Time and space dependence of the electromagnetic field in relativistic heavy-ion collisions, Phys. Rev. C 88, 024911 (2013).
  6. L. McLerran and V. Skokov, Comments about the electromagnetic field in heavy-ion collisions, Nucl. Phys. A929, 184 (2014).
  7. Kirill Tuchin, Particle production in strong electromagnetic fields in relativistic heavy-ion collisions, Adv. High Energy Phys. 2013, 490495 (2013).
  8. Kirill Tuchin, Electromagnetic fields in high energy heavy-ion collisions, Int. J. Mod. Phys. E 23, 1430001 (2014).
  9. Umut Gursoy, Dmitri Kharzeev, and Krishna Rajagopal, Magnetohydrodynamics, charged currents and directed flow in heavy ion collisions, Phys. Rev. C 89, 054905 (2014).
  10. Hui Li, Xin-li Sheng, and Qun Wang, Electromagnetic fields with electric and chiral magnetic conductivities in heavy ion collisions, Phys. Rev. C 94, 044903 (2016).
  11. Roman Pasechnik and Michal Šumbera, Phenomenological review on quark–gluon plasma: Concepts vs. observations, Universe 3, 7 (2017).
  12. Markus Mayer, Ashutosh Dash, Gabriele Inghirami, Hannah Elfner, Luciano Rezzolla, and Dirk H. Rischke, BHAC-QGP: three-dimensional MHD simulations of relativistic heavy-ion collisions, II. Application to Au-Au collisions, Phys. Rev. C 111, 044908 (2025).
  13. STAR Collaboration, Global Λ hyperon polarization in nuclear collisions: Evidence for the most vortical fluid, Nature (London) 548, 62 (2017).
  14. D. E. Kharzeev, J. Liao, S. A. Voloshin, and G. Wang, Chiral magnetic and vortical effects in high-energy nuclear collisions—A status report, Prog. Part. Nucl. Phys. 88, 1 (2016).
  15. Prabal Adhikari et al., Strongly interacting matter in extreme magnetic fields, arXiv:2412.18632.
  16. Dmitri Kharzeev, Parity violation in hot QCD: Why it can happen, and how to look for it, Phys. Lett. B 633, 260 (2006).
  17. Dmitri E. Kharzeev, Larry D. McLerran, and Harmen J. Warringa, The effects of topological charge change in heavy ion collisions: “Event by event P and CP violation”, Nucl. Phys. A803, 227 (2008).
  18. Kenji Fukushima, Dmitri E. Kharzeev, and Harmen J. Warringa, The chiral magnetic effect, Phys. Rev. D 78, 074033 (2008).
  19. Dmitri E. Kharzeev, Jinfeng Liao, and Prithwish Tribedy, Chiral magnetic effect in heavy ion collisions: The present and future, Int. J. Mod. Phys. E 33, 2430007 (2024).
  20. D. T. Son and Ariel R. Zhitnitsky, Quantum anomalies in dense matter, Phys. Rev. D 70, 074018 (2004).
  21. D. T. Son and M. A. Stephanov, Axial anomaly and magnetism of nuclear and quark matter, Phys. Rev. D 77, 014021 (2008).
  22. Victor E. Ambruş and Maxim N. Chernodub, Helical separation effect and helical heat transport for Dirac fermions, Eur. Phys. J. C 84, 282 (2024).
  23. Dmitri E. Kharzeev and Ho-Ung Yee, Chiral magnetic wave, Phys. Rev. D 83, 085007 (2011).
  24. Yannis Burnier, Dmitri E. Kharzeev, Jinfeng Liao, and Ho-Ung Yee, Chiral magnetic wave at finite baryon density and the electric quadrupole moment of quark-gluon plasma in heavy ion collisions, Phys. Rev. Lett. 107, 052303 (2011).
  25. Martin Ammon, Sebastian Grieninger, Juan Hernandez, Matthias Kaminski, Roshan Koirala, Julian Leiber, and Jackson Wu, Chiral hydrodynamics in strong external magnetic fields, J. High Energy Phys. 04 (2021) 078.
  26. Johanna Erdmenger, Michael Haack, Matthias Kaminski, and Amos Yarom, Fluid dynamics of R-charged black holes, J. High Energy Phys. 01 (2009) 055.
  27. Dam T. Son and Piotr Surowka, Hydrodynamics with triangle anomalies, Phys. Rev. Lett. 103, 191601 (2009).
  28. Yin Jiang, Xu-Guang Huang, and Jinfeng Liao, Chiral vortical wave and induced flavor charge transport in a rotating quark-gluon plasma, Phys. Rev. D 92, 071501 (2015).
  29. Sergio Morales-Tejera, Victor E. Ambruş, and Maxim N. Chernodub, Vortical waves in a quantum fluid with vector, axial and helical charges. II. Dissipative effects, Eur. Phys. J. C 85, 89 (2025).
  30. Sergio Morales-Tejera, Victor E. Ambruş, and Maxim N. Chernodub, Vortical waves in a quantum fluid with vector, axial, and helical charges. I. Non-dissipative transport, Eur. Phys. J. C 84, 1320 (2024).
  31. Qiang Li, Dmitri E. Kharzeev, Cheng Zhang, Yuan Huang, I. Pletikosic, A. V. Fedorov, R. D. Zhong, J. A. Schneeloch, G. D. Gu, and T. Valla, Observation of the chiral magnetic effect in ZrTe5, Nat. Phys. 12, 550 (2016).
  32. Cai-Zhen Li, Li-Xian Wang, Haiwen Liu, Jian Wang, Zhi-Min Liao, and Da-Peng Yu, Giant negative magnetoresistance induced by the chiral anomaly in individual Cd3As2 nanowires, Nat. Commun. 6, 10137 (2015).
  33. Jun Xiong, Satya K Kushwaha, Tian Liang, Jason W Krizan, Max Hirschberger, and Wudi Wang, Evidence for the chiral anomaly in the Dirac semimetal Na3Bi, Science 350, 413 (2015).
  34. Xiaochun Huang, Lingxiao Zhao, Yujia Long, Peipei Wang, Dong Chen, Zhanhai Yang, Hui Liang, Mianqi Xue, Hongming Weng, Zhong Fang, Xi Dai, and Genfu Chen, Observation of the chiral-anomaly-induced negative magnetoresistance in 3D Weyl semimetal TaAs, Phys. Rev. X 5, 031023 (2015).
  35. Mohamed Abdallah et al. (STAR Collaboration), Search for the chiral magnetic effect with isobar collisions at sNN=200  GeV by the STAR Collaboration at the BNL Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider, Phys. Rev. C 105, 014901 (2022).
  36. Dmitri E. Kharzeev, Jinfeng Liao, and Shuzhe Shi, Implications of the isobar-run results for the chiral magnetic effect in heavy-ion collisions, Phys. Rev. C 106, L051903 (2022).
  37. Roy A. Lacey and Niseem Magdy, Scaling properties of the Δγ correlator and their implication for detection of the chiral magnetic effect in heavy-ion collisions, arXiv:2206.05773.
  38. Anping Huang, Duan She, Shuzhe Shi, Mei Huang, and Jinfeng Liao, Dynamical magnetic fields in heavy-ion collisions, Phys. Rev. C 107, 034901 (2023).
  39. P. V. Buividovich, Out-of-equilibrium chiral magnetic effect from simulations on Euclidean lattices, Phys. Rev. D 110, 094508 (2024).
  40. B. B. Brandt, G. Endrődi, E. Garnacho-Velasco, G. Markó, and A. D. M. Valois, Localized chiral magnetic effect in equilibrium QCD, arXiv:2409.17616.
  41. Bastian B. Brandt, Gergely Endrodi, Eduardo Garnacho Velasco, Gergely Marko, and A. Dean M. Valois, Out-of-equilibrium chiral magnetic effect via Kubo formulas, Proc. Sci. LATTICE2024 (2025) 196 [arXiv:2502.01155].
  42. Antti Gynther, Karl Landsteiner, Francisco Pena-Benitez, and Anton Rebhan, Holographic anomalous conductivities and the chiral magnetic effect, J. High Energy Phys. 02 (2011) 110.
  43. Shu Lin and Ho-Ung Yee, Out-of-equilibrium chiral magnetic effect at strong coupling, Phys. Rev. D 88, 025030 (2013).
  44. Amadeo Jimenez-Alba, Karl Landsteiner, and Luis Melgar, Anomalous magnetoresponse and the Stückelberg axion in holography, Phys. Rev. D 90, 126004 (2014).
  45. Amadeo Jimenez-Alba, Karl Landsteiner, Yan Liu, and Ya-Wen Sun, Anomalous magnetoconductivity and relaxation times in holography, J. High Energy Phys. 07 (2015) 117.
  46. Martin Ammon, Sebastian Grieninger, Amadeo Jimenez-Alba, Rodrigo P. Macedo, and Luis Melgar, Holographic quenches and anomalous transport, J. High Energy Phys. 09 (2016) 131.
  47. Karl Landsteiner, Esperanza Lopez, and Guillermo Milans del Bosch, Quenching the chiral magnetic effect via the gravitational anomaly and holography, Phys. Rev. Lett. 120, 071602 (2018).
  48. Jorge Fernández-Pendás and Karl Landsteiner, Out of equilibrium chiral magnetic effect and momentum relaxation in holography, Phys. Rev. D 100, 126024 (2019).
  49. Jewel K. Ghosh, Sebastian Grieninger, Karl Landsteiner, and Sergio Morales-Tejera, Is the chiral magnetic effect fast enough?, Phys. Rev. D 104, 046009 (2021).
  50. Casey Cartwright, Matthias Kaminski, and Bjoern Schenke, Energy dependence of the chiral magnetic effect in expanding holographic plasma, Phys. Rev. C 105, 034903 (2022).
  51. Nishal Rai and Eugenio Megias, Holographic approach to anomalous transport in a massive U(1) gauge theory, arXiv:2406.01427.
  52. Sebastian Grieninger and Sergio Morales-Tejera, Real-time dynamics of axial charge and chiral magnetic current in a non-Abelian expanding plasma, Phys. Rev. D 108, 126010 (2023).
  53. Sebastian Grieninger and Dmitri E. Kharzeev, Spacetime dynamics of chiral magnetic currents in a hot non-Abelian plasma, Phys. Rev. D 108, 126004 (2023).
  54. Tigran Kalaydzhyan and Ingo Kirsch, Holographic dual of a boost-invariant plasma with chemical potential, J. High Energy Phys. 02 (2011) 053.
  55. Jan Zaanen, Ya-Wen Sun, Yan Liu, and Koenraad Schalm, Holographic Duality in Condensed Matter Physics (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, England, 2015).
  56. Martin Ammon and Johanna Erdmenger, Gauge/Gravity Duality: Foundations and Applications (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, England, 2015).
  57. Romuald A. Janik and Robert B. Peschanski, Asymptotic perfect fluid dynamics as a consequence of AdS/CFT, Phys. Rev. D 73, 045013 (2006).
  58. Sebastian Grieninger and Ismail Zahed, Out-of-equilibrium photon production and electric conductivity in a holographic Bjorken expanding plasma, Phys. Rev. D 107, 046017 (2023).
  59. Paul M. Chesler and Laurence G. Yaffe, Boost invariant flow, black hole formation, and far-from-equilibrium dynamics in N=4 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory, Phys. Rev. D 82, 026006 (2010).
  60. Renato Critelli, Romulo Rougemont, and Jorge Noronha, Holographic Bjorken flow of a hot and dense fluid in the vicinity of a critical point, Phys. Rev. D 99, 066004 (2019).
  61. Romulo Rougemont, Jorge Noronha, Willians Barreto, Gabriel S. Denicol, and Travis Dore, Violation of energy conditions and entropy production in holographic Bjorken flow, Phys. Rev. D 104, 126012 (2021).
  62. Romulo Rougemont and Willians Barreto, Holographic entropy production in a Bjorken expanding hot and dense strongly coupled quantum fluid, Phys. Rev. D 106, 126023 (2022).
  63. Casey Cartwright, Matthias Kaminski, and Marco Knipfer, Hydrodynamic attractors for the speed of sound in holographic Bjorken flow, Phys. Rev. D 107, 106016 (2023).
  64. Olaf Massen, Govert Nijs, Mike Sas, Wilke van der Schee, and Raimond Snellings, Effective temperatures of the QGP from thermal photon and dilepton production, Eur. Phys. J. C 85, 388 (2025).
  65. STAR Collaboration, Temperature measurement of quark-gluon plasma at different stages, arXiv:2402.01998.
  66. Shuzhe Shi, Yin Jiang, Elias Lilleskov, and Jinfeng Liao, Anomalous chiral transport in heavy ion collisions from anomalous-viscous fluid dynamics, Ann. Phys. (Amsterdam) 394, 50 (2018).
  67. Yu Guo, Shuzhe Shi, Shengqin Feng, and Jinfeng Liao, Magnetic field induced polarization difference between hyperons and anti-hyperons, Phys. Lett. B 798, 134929 (2019).
  68. Wei-jie Fu, Yu-xin Liu, and Yue-liang Wu, Chiral magnetic effect and QCD phase transitions with effective models, Int. J. Mod. Phys. A 26, 4335 (2011).
  69. Wei-Jie Fu, Yue-Liang Wu, and Yu-Xin Liu, Chiral magnetic effect and chiral phase transition, Commun. Theor. Phys. 55, 123 (2011).
  70. Kazuki Ikeda, Dmitri E. Kharzeev, and Yuta Kikuchi, Real-time dynamics of Chern-Simons fluctuations near a critical point, Phys. Rev. D 103, L071502 (2021).
  71. Domingo Gallegos, Matti Järvinen, and Eamonn Weitz, Chiral separation effect from holographic QCD, J. High Energy Phys. 11 (2024) 051.
  72. Matteo Baggioli, Yanyan Bu, and Xiyang Sun, Chiral anomalous magnetohydrodynamics in action: Effective field theory and holography, J. High Energy Phys. 04 (2025) 126.
  73. Sebastian Grieninger, Holographic quenches and anomalous transport, arXiv:1711.08422.
  74. Michael Haack, Debajyoti Sarkar, and Amos Yarom, Probing anomalous driving, J. High Energy Phys. 04 (2019) 034.
  75. Ben Meiring, Ido Shyovitz, Sebastian Waeber, and Amos Yarom, Multiply charged magnetic black branes, J. High Energy Phys. 06 (2024) 196.
  76. Sebastian Waeber and Amos Yarom, Long lived quasi normal modes, arXiv:2411.18039.
  77. Eric D’Hoker and Per Kraus, Charged magnetic brane solutions in AdS5 and the fate of the third law of thermodynamics, J. High Energy Phys. 03 (2010) 095.
  78. STAR Collaboration, Charge separation measurements in Au+Au collisions at sNN=7.7–200  GeV in search of the chiral magnetic effect, arXiv:2506.00275.
  79. STAR Collaboration, Search for the chiral magnetic effect through beam energy dependence of charge separation using event shape selection, arXiv:2506.00278.
  80. Sergio Morales-Tejera Sebastian Grieninger and Pau G. Romeu, Code: Chiral magnetic effect enhancement at lower collision energies, Zenodo, 10.5281/zenodo.15638877 (2025).

Outline

Information

Phys. Rev. D 112, 036003– Published 7 August, 2025
  • Received 1 April 2025
  • Accepted 18 July 2025
Crossmark - Check for updates button
Creative Commons Logo

Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI. Funded by SCOAP3.

Published by the American Physical Society

Sign In to Your Journals Account

Filter

Filter

Article Lookup

Enter a citation