We introduce the quantum-field-theory (QFT) derivation of chiral kinetic theory (CKT) from the Wigner-function approach, which manifests side jumps and non-scalar distribution functions associated with Lorentz covariance and incorporates both background fields and collisions. The formalism is utilized to investigate second-order responses of chiral fluids near local equilibrium. Such non-equilibrium anomalous transport is dissipative and affected by interactions. Contributions from both quantum corrections in anomalous hydrodynamic equations (EOM) of motion and those from the CKT and Wigner functions (WF) are considered in a relaxation-time approximation (RTA). Anomalous charged Hall currents engendered by background electric fields and temperature/chemical-potential gradients are obtained. Furthermore, chiral magnetic/vortical effects (CME/CVE) receive viscous corrections as non-equilibrium modifications stemming from the interplay between side jumps, magnetic-moment coupling, and chiral anomaly.
We revisit the chiral anomaly in the quantum kinetic theory in the Wigner function formalism under the background field approximation. Our results show that the chiral anomaly is actually from the Dirac sea or the vacuum contribution in the un-normal-ordered Wigner function. We also demonstrate that this contribution modifies the chiral kinetic equation for antiparticles.
We derive the chiral kinetic equation in 8 dimensional phase space in non-Abelian $SU(N)$ gauge field within the Wigner function formalism. By using the "covariant gradient expansion", we disentangle the Wigner equations in four-vector space up to the first order and find that only the time-like component of the chiral Wigner function is independent while other components can be explicit derivative. After further decomposing the Wigner function or equations in color space, we present the non-Abelian covariant chiral kinetic equation for the color singlet and multiplet phase-space distribution …
We study the two-point functions from chiral kinetic theory which characterize the response to perturbative vector and axial gauge fields in magnetized chiral plasma. In the lowest Landau level approximation, the solution of chiral kinetic equations gives density waves of electric and axial charges, which contain chiral magnetic wave implied by the axial anomaly and magnetic field. We then obtain the constitutive relations for covariant currents and stress tensor that involving the density waves. By considering the difference between consistent and covariant anomalies explicitly, the correlato…
We study collective excitations in systems described by chiral kinetic theory in external magnetic field. We consider high-temperature weak-coupling plasma, as well as high-density Landau Fermi liquid with interaction not restricted to be weak. We show that chiral magnetic wave (CMW) emerges in hydrodynamic regime (at frequencies smaller than collision relaxation rate) and the CMW velocity is determined by thermodynamic properties only. We find that in a plasma of opposite chiralities, at frequencies smaller than the chirality-flipping rate, the CMW excitation turns into a vector-like diffusio…
We outline a novel chiral kinetic theory framework for systematic computations of the Chiral Magnetic Effect (CME) in ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions. The real part of the fermion determinant in the QCD effective action is expressed as a supersymmetric world-line action of spinning, colored, Grassmanian point particles in background gauge fields, with equations of motion that are covariant generalizations of the Bargmann-Michel-Telegdi and Wong equations. Berry's phase is obtained in a consistent non-relativistic adiabatic limit. The chiral anomaly, in contrast, arises from the phase of…
In heavy-ion collisions, an interesting question of phenomenological relevance is how the chiral imbalance generated at early times persists through a fluctuating background of sphalerons in addition to other "non-anomalous" interactions with the QGP. To address this question, we construct a relativistic chiral kinetic theory using the world-line formulation of quantum field theory. We outline how Berry's phase arises in this framework, and how its effects can be clearly distinguished from those arising from the chiral anomaly. We further outline how this framework can be matched to classical …
We use the recently developed kinetic theory with Berry curvature to describe the fermions and antifermions of a chiral relativistic plasma. We check that this transport approach allows to reproduce the chiral anomaly equation of relativistic quantum field theory at finite temperature. We also check that it allows to describe the anomalous gauge polarization tensor that appears in the Hard Thermal (and/or Dense) effective field theory. We also construct an energy density associated to the gauge collective modes of the chiral relativistic plasma, valid in the case of small couplings or weak fie…
We give a brief overview of the kinetic theory for spin-1/2 fermions in Wigner function formulism. The chiral and spin kinetic equations can be derived from equations for Wigner functions. A general Wigner function has 16 components which satisfy 32 coupled equations. For massless fermions, the number of independent equations can be significantly reduced due to the decoupling of left-handed and right-handed particles. It can be proved that out of many components of Wigner functions and their coupled equations, only one kinetic equation for the distribution function is independent. This is call…
We derive a relativistic chiral kinetic equation with manifest Lorentz covariance from Wigner functions of spin-1/2 massless fermions in a constant background electromagnetic field. It contains vorticity terms and a 4-dimensional Euclidean Berry monopole which gives axial anomaly. By integrating out the zero-th component of the 4-momentum p, we reproduce the previous 3-dimensional results derived from the Hamiltonian approach, together with the newly derived vorticity terms. The phase space continuity equation has an anomalous source term proportional to the product of electric and magnetic fi…
A modified quantum kinetic equation which takes account of the noninertial features of rotating frame is proposed. The vector and axial-vector field components of the Wigner function for chiral fluids are worked out in a semiclassical scheme. It is demonstrated that the chiral currents and energy-momentum tensor computed by means of them are consistent with the hydrodynamical results. A new semiclassical covariant chiral transport equation is established by inspecting the equations satisfied by the chiral vector fields. It uniquely provides a new three-dimensional semiclassical chiral kinetic …
We derive the non-equilibrium kinetic equation describing the motion of chiral massless particles in the regime where it can be considered classically. We show that the Berry monopole which appears at the origin of the momentum space due to level crossing is responsible for the chiral magnetic and vortical effects.
In certain circumstances, chiral (parity-violating) medium can be described hydrodynamically as a chiral fluid with microscopic quantum anomalies. Possible examples of such systems include strongly coupled quark-gluon plasma, liquid helium 3He-A, neutron stars and the Early Universe. We study first-order hydrodynamics of a chiral fluid on a vortex background and in an external magnetic field. We show that there are two previously undiscovered modes describing heat waves propagating along the vortex and magnetic field. We call them the Thermal Chiral Vortical Wave and Thermal Chiral Magnetic Wa…
We give a general overview about the approaches to study the phase diagram of QCD. Thereafter, we examine the evolution of a fireball in a chiral fluid dynamic model including nonequilibrium effects.
We determine the kinetic coefficients of ultrasoft pions using chiral perturbation theory at finite temperature close to the chiral limit. This is used to compute the axial charge diffusion and damping coefficients in the hydrodynamic effective theory for these pion waves. We show that to provide a leading order answer for these coefficients one needs to explore the dynamics of hard, soft, and ultrasoft pion modes, which are represented microscopically by the appropriate kinetic and hydrodynamic descriptions..
The transport coefficients of causal relativistic dissipative fluid dynamics are calculated both in a field-theoretical and a kinetic approach. We find that the results from the traditional kinetic calculation by Israel and Stewart are modified. The new expressions for the viscous transport coefficients agree with the results obtained in the field-theoretical approach when the contributions from pair creation and annihilation are neglected.
We revisit the chiral kinetic equation from high density effective theory approach, finding a chiral kinetic equation differs from counterpart derived from field theory in high order terms in the $O(1/μ)$ expansion, but in agreement with the equation derived in on-shell effective field theory upon identification of cutoff. By using reparametrization transformation properties of the effective theory, we show that the difference in kinetic equations from two approaches are in fact expected. It is simply due to different choices of degree of freedom by effective theory and field theory. We also s…
Chirality of neutrinos modifies the conventional kinetic theory and hydrodynamics, leading to unusual chiral transport related to quantum anomalies in field theory. We argue that these corrections have new phenomenological consequences for hot and dense neutrino gases, especially in core-collapse supernovae. We find that the neutrino density can be converted to the fluid helicity through the chiral vortical effect. This fluid helicity effectively acts as a chiral chemical potential for electrons via the momentum exchange with neutrinos and induces a "helical plasma instability" that generates …
In this work, we start with chiral kinetic theory and construct the spin hydrodynamic framework for a chiral spinor system. Using the 14-moment expansion formalism, we obtain the equations of motion of second-order dissipative relativistic fluid dynamics with non-trivial spin polarization density. In a chiral spinor system, the spin alignment effect could be treated in the same framework as the Chiral Vortical Effect (CVE). However, the quantum corrections due to fluid vorticity induce not only CVE terms in the vector/axial charge currents but also corrections to the stress tensor. In this fra…
Using a covariant formalism, we construct a chiral kinetic theory Lorentz invariant to order $\mathcal O(\hbar)$ which includes collisions. We find a new contribution to the particle number current due to the side jumps required by the conservation of angular momentum during collisions. We also find a conserved symmetric stress-energy tensor as well as the $H$-function obeying Boltzmann's $H$-theorem. We demonstrate their use by finding a general equilibrium solution and the values of the anomalous transport coefficients characterizing chiral vortical effect.
In this proceedings we discuss recent findings regarding the large order behavior of the Chapman-Enskog expansion in relativistic kinetic theory. It is shown that this series in powers of the Knudsen number has zero radius of convergence in the case of a Bjorken expanding fluid described by the Boltzmann equation in the relaxation time approximation. This divergence stems from the presence of non-hydrodynamic modes, which give non-perturbative contributions to the Knudsen series.
The total angular momentum is conserved in the evolution of the Quark-Gluon Plasma (QGP) created in heavy-ion collision, and consists of two sectors: the orbital angular momentum (OAM) caused by kinetic motion, and the spin, an intrinsic degree of freedom of quarks and gluons. Microscopic scattering processes allow the conversion between these two components, hence the spin density could eventually have non-trivial influence on the QGP evolution. A hydrodynamic theory, with the spin polarization effect properly taken into account, is required to quantitatively study the polarization rate for o…
By making use of the chiral kinetic theory in the relaxation-time approximation, we derive an Israel-Stewart type formulation of the hydrodynamic equations for a chiral relativistic plasma made of neutral particles (e.g., neutrinos). The effects of chiral asymmetry are captured by including an additional continuity equation for the axial charge, as well as the leading-order quantum corrections due to the spin of particles. In a formulation of the chiral kinetic theory used, we introduce a symmetric form of the energy-momentum tensor that is suitable for the description of a weakly nonuniform c…
We derive a chiral kinetic theory with Landau level basis, which is valid for slow-varying magnetic field with arbitrary magnitude. We apply the new chiral kinetic theory to calculate the electric conductivity transverse to the magnetic field in a magnetized QED and QCD plasma. Under the lowest Landau level approximation and relaxation time approximation, we find the transverse conductivity approaches a constant in the large magnetic field limit and is inversely proportional to the relaxation time. We also obtain a frequency-dependent transverse conductivity in response to a time-dependent ele…
We study the photon self-energy in magnetized chiral plasma by solving the response of electromagnetic field perturbations in chiral kinetic theory with Landau level states. With lowest Landau level approximation and in collisionless limit, we find solutions for three particular perturbations: parallel electric field, static perpendicular electric and magnetic field, corresponding to chiral magnetic wave, drift state and tilted state, from which we extract components of photon self-energy in different kinematics. We show no solution is possible for more general field perturbations. We argue th…
We argue that the correct definition of the electric current in the chiral kinetic theory for Weyl materials should include the Chern-Simons contribution that makes the theory consistent with the local conservation of the electric charge in electromagnetic and strain-induced pseudoelectromagnetic fields. By making use of such a kinetic theory, we study the plasma frequencies of collective modes in Weyl materials in constant magnetic and pseudomagnetic fields, taking into account the effects of dynamical electromagnetism. We show that the collective modes are chiral plasmons. While the plasma f…
Many-body systems with chiral fermions exhibit anomalous transport phenomena originated from quantum anomalies. Based on quantum field theory, we derive the kinetic theory for chiral fermions interacting with an external electromagnetic field and a background curved geometry. The resultant framework respects the covariance under the U(1) gauge, local Lorentz, and diffeomorphic transformations. It is particularly useful to study the gravitational or non-inertial effects for chiral systems. As the first application, we study the chiral dynamics in a rotating coordinate and clarify the roles of t…
The chiral kinetic theory of Weyl fermions with collisions in the presence of weak electric and magnetic fields is derived from quantum field theories. It is found that the side-jump terms in the perturbative solution of Wigner functions play a significant role for the derivation. Moreover, such terms manifest the breaking of Lorentz symmetry for distribution functions. The Lorentz covariance of Wigner functions thus leads to modified Lorentz transformation associated with side-jump phenomena further influenced by background fields and collisions.
We utilize the chiral kinetic theory in a relaxation-time approximation to investigate the nonlinear anomalous responses of chiral fluids with viscous effects. Unlike the cases in equilibrium, it is found that the chiral magnetic effect and chiral vortical effect are modified by the shear and bulk strengths. Particularly, the shear strength could result in charged Hall currents for chiral magnetic and chiral vortical effects, which propagate perpendicular to applied magnetic fields and vorticity. These quantum corrections stemming from side jumps and anomalies are dissipative and pertinent to …
We investigate the kinetics of phase transitions for chiral symmetry breaking in heavy-ion collisions. We use a Langevin description for order-parameter kinetics in the chiral transition. The Langevin equation of motion includes {\it dissipation} and an {\it inertial term}. We study the ordering dynamics subsequent to a quench from the massless quark phase to the massive quark phase, and discuss the effect of inertia on the growth kinetics.
Chiral anomaly and the novel quantum phenomena it induces have been widely studied for Dirac and Weyl fermions. In most typical cases, the Lorentz covariance is assumed and thus the linear dispersion relations are maintained. However, in realistic materials, such as Dirac and Weyl semimetals, the non-linear dispersion relations appear naturally. We develop a kinetic framework to study the chiral anomaly for Weyl fermions with non-linear dispersions by using the methods of Wigner function and semi-classical equations of motion. In this framework, the chiral anomaly is sourced by Berry monopoles…
The rotation of polarization occurs for light interacting with chiral materials. It requires the light states with opposite chiralities interact differently with the materials. We demonstrate analogous rotation of polarization also exists for chiral fermions interacting with quantum electrodynamics plasma with vorticity using chiral kinetic theory. We find that the rotation of polarization is perpendicular both to vorticity and fermion momentum. The effect also exists for chiral fermions in quantum chromodynamics plasma with vorticity. It could lead to generation of a vector current when the p…
The covariant chiral kinetic equation (CCKE) is derived from the 4-dimensional Wigner function by an improved perturbative method under the static equilibrium conditions. The chiral kinetic equation in 3-dimensions can be obtained by intergation over the time component of the 4-momentum. There is freedom to add more terms to the CCKE allowed by conservation laws. In the derivation of the 3-dimensional equation, there is also freedom to choose coefficients of some terms in $dx_{0}/dτ$ and $d\mathbf{x}/dτ$ ($τ$ is a parameter along the worldline, and $(x_{0},\mathbf{x})$ denotes the time-space p…
The kinetics of the chiral phase transition is studied within a linear quark-meson-$σ$ model, using a Monte-Carlo approach to semiclassical particle-field dynamics. The meson fields are described on the mean-field level and quarks and antiquarks as ensembles of test particles. Collisions between quarks and antiquarks as well as the $q\overline{q}$ annihilation to $σ$ mesons and the decay of $σ$ mesons is treated, using the corresponding transition-matrix elements from the underlying quantum field theory, obeying strictly the rule of detailed balance and energy-momentum conservation. The approa…
The kinetics of chiral transitions in hot and dense quark matter is studied via a microscopic framework (Nambu-Jona-Lasinio model) and a phenomenological model (Ginzburg-Landau free energy). We focus on the far-from-equilibrium ordering dynamics subsequent to a quench from the massless quark phase to the massive quark phase. The morphology of the ordering system is characterized by the scaling of the order-parameter correlation function. The domain growth process obeys the Allen-Cahn growth law, $L(t)\sim t^{1/2}$. We also study the growth of bubble of the stable massive phase in a background …
The mixture of quark and gluon fluids is studied in a one-dimensional boost-invariant setup using the set of relativistic kinetic equations treated in the relaxation time approximation. Effects of a finite quark mass, non-zero baryon number density, and quantum statistics are discussed. Comparisons between the exact kinetic-theory results and anisotropic hydrodynamics predictions are performed and a very good agreement between the two are found.
We study the kinetics of chiral transitions in quark matter using a microscopic framework (Nambu-Jona-Lasinio model) and a phenomenological model (Ginzburg-Landau free energy). We focus on the coarsening dynamics subsequent to a quench from the massless quark phase to the massive quark phase. The morphology of the ordering system is characterized by the scaling of the order-parameter correlation function. The domain growth process obeys the Allen-Cahn growth law, $L(t)\sim t^{1/2}$. We also study the growth of bubbles of the stable massive phase from the metastable massless phase.
We show that for an anomalous fluid carrying dissipationless chiral magnetic and/or vortical currents there is a frame in which a stationary obstacle experiences no drag, but energy and charge currents do not vanish, resembling superfluidity. However, unlike ordinary superfluid flow, the anomalous chiral currents do transport entropy in this frame. We show that the second law of thermodynamics completely determines the amounts of these anomalous non-dissipative currents in the "no-drag frame" as polynomials in temperature and chemical potential with known anomaly coefficients. These general re…
Dissipative relativistic fluid-dynamical descriptions of the extended fireball formed in high-energy heavy-ion collisions are quite successful, yet require a prescription for converting the fluid into particles. We present arguments in favour of using a locally anisotropic momentum distribution for the particles emitted from the fluid, so as to smooth out discontinuities introduced by the usual conversion prescriptions. Building on this ansatz, we investigate the effect of the asymmetry on several observables of heavy ion physics.
A simple system of coupled kinetic equations for quark and gluon anisotropic systems is solved numerically. The solutions are compared with the predictions of the anisotropic hydrodynamics describing a mixture of anisotropic fluids. We find that the solutions of the kinetic equations can be well reproduced by anisotropic hydrodynamics if the initial distribution are oblate for both quarks and gluons. On the other hand, the solutions of the kinetic equations have a different qualitative behavior from those obtained in anisotropic hydrodynamics if the initial configurations are oblate-prolate or…
We re-derive the equations of motion of dissipative relativistic fluid dynamics from kinetic theory. In contrast to the derivation of Israel and Stewart, which considered the second moment of the Boltzmann equation to obtain equations of motion for the dissipative currents, we directly use the latter's definition. Although the equations of motion obtained via the two approaches are formally identical, the coefficients are different. We show that, for the one-dimensional scaling expansion, our method is in better agreement with the solution obtained from the Boltzmann equation.
We present the results of deriving the Israel-Stewart equations of relativistic dissipative fluid dynamics from kinetic theory via Grad's 14-moment expansion. Working consistently to second order in the Knudsen number, these equations contain several new terms which are absent in previous treatments.
Based on the chiral kinetic approach using initial conditions from a multiphase transport model, we study the spin polarizations of quarks and antiquarks in non-central heavy ion collisions at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider. Because of the non-vanishing vorticity field in these collisions, quarks and antiquarks are found to acquire appreciable spin polarizations in the direction perpendicular to the reaction plane. Converting quarks and antiquarks to hadrons via the coalescence model, we further calculate the spin polarizations of Lambda and anti-Lambda hyperons and find their values comp…
Based on the chiral kinetic approach using quarks and antiquarks from a multiphase transport model as initial conditions, we study the chiral magnetic effect, i.e., the magnetic field induced separation of charged particles in the transverse plane, in non-central isobaric collisions of Zr$+$Zr and Ru$+$Ru, which have the same atomic number but different proton numbers. For the observable $γ^{OS}-γ^{SS}$ related to the difference between the correlations of particles of opposite charges and of same charges, we find a difference between the two collision systems if the magnetic field has a long …
We study nonequilibrium effects at the QCD phase transition within the framework of Polyakov loop extended chiral fluid dynamics. The quark degrees of freedom act as a locally equilibrated heat bath for the sigma field and a dynamical Polyakov loop. Their evolution is described by a Langevin equation with dissipation and noise. At a critical point we observe the formation of long-range correlations after equilibration. During a hydrodynamical expansion nonequilibrium fluctuations are enhanced at the first order phase transition compared to the critical point.
We investigate the nonequilibrium evolution of the sigma field coupled to a fluid dynamic expansion of a hot fireball to model the chiral phase transition in heavy-ion collisions. The dissipative processes and fluctuations are allowed under the assumption that the total energy of the coupled system is conserved. We use the linear sigma model with constituent quarks to investigate the effects of the chiral phase transition on the equilibration and excitation of the sigma modes. The quark fluid acts as a heat bath in local thermal equilibrium and the sigma field evolves according to a semiclassi…
