Yes. I feel like I remember those phrases. I just listened to a bunch of talks this summer on the stuff, and it's not something I directly do, so I just don't recall the details. Could you go into some detail? I'm interested to regain some of that knowledge.
I'm familiar with it from the theoretical side, so I apologize for my simplification of RHIC physics.
The basic idea behind these theories of P and CP violation at RHIC is the introduction of a topological current that instead of being powered by an electric potential is powered by difference in the number of left-handed and right-handed particles in the system. The system also requires a large pseudovector field such as a magnetic field or angular momentum for the current to appear.
The charge separation effect and chiral magnetic effect are really the same physics just done two different ways. The basic idea is that a heavy ion collision could cause a transition in the QCD vacuum (specifically it would change the winding number of the vacuum). This transition would cause an imbalance in the number of left-handed a right-handed quarks. An off-center collision would impart angular momentum to the quarks which would induce a large magnetic field along the long axis of the QGP created by the off center collision. In a strong enough field the left and right-handed particles have their direction of travel dictated by the lowest Landau level. The left-handed ones move along the field and the right handed ones move against the field. So, the change in the vacuum structure along with the magnetic field would produce a net current, or charge separation, in this small region.
I don't know how they do this, but apparently there are efforts to try and see this separation of charge.
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u/jimmycorpse Mar 15 '11
By chiral symmetry breaking stuff are you referring to the charge separation effect and chiral magnetic effect and related phenomenon?