Chiral Plasma Instabilities

Abstract

We study the collective modes in relativistic electromagnetic or quark-gluon plasmas with an asymmetry between left- and right-handed chiral fermions, based on the recently formulated kinetic theory with Berry curvature corrections. We find that there exists an unstable mode, signaling the presence of a plasma instability. We argue the fate of this "chiral plasma instability" including the effect of collisions, and briefly discuss its relevance in heavy ion collisions and compact stars.