Charge-dependent flow induced by electromagnetic fields in heavy ion collisions

The colliding heavy ions create extremely strong magnetic and electric fields that significantly affect the evolution of the produced quark-gluon plasma (QGP). The knowledge of these fields is essential for establishing the role of topological fluctuations in the QGP through the chiral magnetic effect and related anomaly-induced phenomena. In this talk, we describe our work on the evolution of the QGP in electric and magnetic fields in the framework of hydrodynamics supplemented, in a perturbative fashion, by the dynamical electromagnetism. The evolution of the QGP fluid is described within the iEBE-VISHNU framework. We find that the electromagnetically induced currents result in a a charge-odd directed flow Delta v(1) and a charge-odd Delta v(3) flow both of which are odd in rapidity. While the predicted magnitude of these charge-odd flows agrees with the data from RHIC and LHC, the sign of the predicted asymmetry between the flows of positive and negative hadrons is opposite to the data.

Automated summary

The collision of heavy ions produces strong magnetic and electric fields that significantly influence the evolution of quark-gluon plasma (QGP). Understanding these fields is crucial for studying the role of topological fluctuations in the QGP through the chiral magnetic effect. Through our work, we found that electromagnetically induced currents result in charge-odd directed flows and that while the predicted magnitude agrees with data, the sign of the predicted asymmetry between flows of positive and negative hadrons differs from actual observations.