Title: Topology, Quantum Anomalies, and Non-dissipative Transport
Speaker: Dmitri Kharzeev, Stony Brook University
Date: Tuesday, December 11, 2012
Time: 1:00pm – 2:00pm
Place: Lecture Hall 102, Simons Center
Abstract: Topology of gauge fields and quantum anomalies can induce a number of interesting phenomena in strongly interacting systems with chiral fermions. In particular, the fluctuations of topological charge in an external magnetic field induce the separation of electric charge (“chiral magnetic effect”, CME). Quantum anomalies essentially modify also the macroscopic
behavior of relativistic fluids, and lead to the emergence of novel collective excitations that lead to a non-dissipative transport of electric and chiral charges. I will present several examples of these phenomena basing on field theory, holography, and hydrodynamics. I will also discuss the applications to QCD plasma and Weyl semimetals, and a recent experimental evidence for the CME in heavy ion collisions at RHIC and LHC.