Chiral Magnetic Wave at Finite Baryon Density and the Electric Quadrupole Moment of the Quark-Gluon Plasma

Abstract

The chiral magnetic wave is a gapless collective excitation of quark-gluon plasma in the presence of an external magnetic field that stems from the interplay of chiral magnetic and chiral separation effects; it is composed of the waves of the electric and chiral charge densities coupled by the axial anomaly. We consider a chiral magnetic wave at finite baryon density and find that it induces the electric quadrupole moment of the quark-gluon plasma produced in heavy ion collisions: the "poles" of the produced fireball (pointing outside of the reaction plane) acquire additional positive electric charge, and the "equator" acquires additional negative charge. We point out that this electric quadrupole deformation lifts the degeneracy between the elliptic flows of positive and negative pions leading to v(2)(π(+))<v(2)(π(-)), and estimate the magnitude of the effect.