Search arXivSearch

arXiv · 2501.02794

Constraining the chiral magnetic effect using spectator and participant planes across Au+Au and isobar collisions at $\sqrt{s_{_{\rm NN}}} = 200$ GeV

Abstract

We investigate the chiral magnetic effect (CME) in relativistic heavy-ion collisions through an improved two-plane method analysis of the $Δγ$ observable, probing $\mathcal{CP}$-symmetry breaking in strong interactions and topological properties of the QCD vacuum. Using a multiphase transport model with tunable CME strengths, we systematically compare Au+Au and isobar collisions at $\sqrt{s_{_{\rm NN}}} = 200$ GeV. We observe a reduced difference in the CME signal-to-background ratio between the spectator and participant planes for Au+Au collisions compared to isobar collisions. A comprehensive chi-square analysis across all three collision systems reveals stronger CME signatures in Au+Au collisions relative to isobar collisions, particularly when measured with respect to the spectator plane. Our findings demonstrate an enhanced experimental reliability of the two-plane method for the CME detection in Au+Au collisions.

Explore related subjects

Keep this discovery

Explore connections, maps & timelines

BibTeXRIS

Bang-Xiang Chen, Xin-Li Zhao, Guo-Liang Ma. 2025-01-06. Constraining the chiral magnetic effect using spectator and participant planes across Au+Au and isobar collisions at $\sqrt{s_{_{\rm NN}}} = 200$ GeV. https://arxiv.org/abs/2501.02794

Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.

KEEP EXPLORING

Related papers

Chiral Symmetry and Its Restoration in QCD

Chiral symmetry is an approximate symmetry of QCD in the light-quark sector. Its spontaneous breaking in the QCD vacuum explains why the pion is anomalously light and why it plays a central role in nuclear physics, including the tensor component of the nuclear force and the saturation properties of nuclei. This article introduces chirality through the Dirac equation and shows how a fermion mass mixes left- and right-handed components, in close analogy with the Bogoliubov--Valatin theory of superconductivity. We then explain spontaneous symmetry breaking, the Nambu--Goldstone theorem, and the role of the chiral condensate as an order parameter. The axial $U(1)_A$ anomaly and its consequences, especially for the $η'$ meson, are discussed. Chiral effective models, including Nambu--Jona-Lasinio-type models, linear sigma models with anomaly terms, and parity-doublet models for baryons, are reviewed as tools for describing hadron properties and the equation of state of dense matter. Finally, we discuss how chiral symmetry may be partially restored at finite temperature and/or baryon density, and summarize experimental probes such as deeply bound pionic atoms, dilepton production in relativistic heavy-ion collisions, $η'$-mesic nuclei, and baryonic observables.

nucl-th

Time-evolution formalism in the complex scaling method: Application to the two-proton decay of $^{6}$Be

We apply our complex-scaled time-evolution operator to the two-proton decay of $^{6}$Be. The nucleus is described as an $α+p+p$ three-body system with explicit Jacobi-coordinate rearrangement and the realistic Argonne $v8'$ NN interaction for the proton-proton subsystem. Starting from a confined initial wave packet, the decay dynamics are described by expansion over the complex-scaled eigenstates of the final Hamiltonian. The decay width extracted from the late-time survival probability agrees closely with that obtained from the CSM resonance pole. The time-dependent densities in different Jacobi coordinates reveal complementary aspects of the evolving three-body geometry, while the spin-singlet component remains dominant during the decay. In particular, the correlated two-proton configuration persists even in the presence of the strong short-range repulsion of the realistic NN interaction. These results demonstrate the applicability of the complex-scaled time-evolution framework to explicit three-body decay dynamics and provide a consistent description of the decay width, spatial evolution, and spin correlations of $^{6}$Be.

nucl-th

Spin-One Secondary Pairing in Two-Flavor Color Superconductivity: Spinful Relativistic Superfluidity and Anomaly Matching

We study secondary pairing in the two-flavor color-superconducting (2SC) phase, where the residual ungapped quarks form a same-chirality $J^P=1^+$ condensate driven by an attractive instanton-induced interaction. We determine its symmetry realization, quasiparticle structure, anomaly matching, and low-energy effective theory. The pairing gap is necessarily nodal; in particular, the complex axial state has two point nodes and realizes a spinful relativistic superfluid. This state preserves the full chiral symmetry ${\rm SU}(2)_{\rm L}\times{\rm SU}(2)_{\rm R}$ while breaking the modified baryon-number symmetry ${\rm U}(1)_{\tilde{\rm B}}$ and spatial rotations, with rotations about the nodal axis locked to the condensate phase. This locking gives rise to a Berry term, the Mermin-Ho relation, and a type-B orientational Nambu-Goldstone mode in addition to the superfluid phonon. We also show how anomaly matching is reorganized by secondary pairing: the perturbative mixed ${\rm SU}(2)_{\rm L,R}^2{\rm U}(1)_{\tilde{\rm B}}$ anomaly is realized by a Wess-Zumino coupling of the superfluid phonon, whereas the ${\rm SU}(2)_{\rm L}$ and ${\rm SU}(2)_{\rm R}$ Witten anomalies are carried by the point-node Bogoliubov-de Gennes flavor doublets. The resulting theory provides a concrete dense-QCD realization of a spinful relativistic superfluid with nodal fermions required by anomaly matching.

nucl-th