Real-time chiral dynamics from a digital quantum simulation

The chiral magnetic effect in a strong magnetic field can be described using the chiral anomaly in the (1 + 1)-dimensional massive Schwinger model with a time-dependent. term. We perform a digital quantum simulation of the model at finite. angle and vanishing gauge coupling using an IBM-Q digital quantum simulator, and observe the corresponding vector current induced in a system of relativistic fermions by a global chiral quencha sudden change in the chiral chemical potential or. angle. At finite fermion mass, there appears an additional contribution to this current that stems from the nonanomalous relaxation of chirality. Our results are relevant for the real-time dynamics of chiral magnetic effect in heavy ion collisions and in chiral materials, as well as for modeling high-energy processes at hadron colliders.