Triangle anomaly in Weyl semi-metals

Weyl semimetals possess massless chiral quasi-particles, and are thus affected by the triangle anomalies. We discuss the features of the chiral magnetic and chiral vortical effects specific to Weyl semimetals, and then propose three novel phenomena caused by the triangle anomalies in this material: 1) anomaly cooling; 2) charge transport by soliton waves as described by the Burgers' equation, and 3) the shift of the BKT phase transition of superfluid vortices coupled to Weyl fermions. In addition, we establish the conditions under which the chiral magnetic current exists in real materials.Comment: v3. Improved figures, minor changes in the text, 24 pages, 3 figure

"Strongly interacting matter in magnetic fields": an overview

This is an introduction to the volume of Lecture Notes in Physics on "Strongly interacting matter in magnetic fields". The volume combines contributions written by a number of experts on different aspects of the problem. The response of QCD matter to intense magnetic fields has attracted a lot of interest recently. On the theoretical side, this interest stems from the possibility to explore the plethora of novel phenomena arising from the interplay of magnetic field with QCD dynamics. On the experimental side, the interest is motivated by the recent results on the behavior of quark-gluon plasma in a strong magnetic field created in relativistic heavy ion collisions at RHIC and LHC. The purpose of this introduction is to provide a brief overview and a guide to the individual contributions where these topics are covered in detail.Comment: 12 pages, introduction to "Strongly interacting matter in magnetic fields", Lect. Notes Phys. 871, 1 (2013), edited by D. Kharzeev, K. Landsteiner, A. Schmitt, H.-U. Yee; v2: references update

Holographic Estimate of Oblique Corrections for Technicolor

We study the oblique corrections to the electroweak interaction in the holographic model of technicolor theories. The oblique S parameter is expressed in terms of a solution to the equations of motion for the AdS bulk gauge fields. By analyzing the solution, we establish a rigorous proof that the S parameter is positive and is reduced by walking. We also present the precise numerical values for the S parameter of various technicolor models by solving the equations numerically.Comment: 10 pages, 1 figure, RevTeX 4.0: published version. references adde

Anomaly-induced Quadrupole Moment of the Neutron in Magnetic Field

The neutrons cannot possess a quadrupole moment in the vacuum. Nevertheless, we show that in the presence of an external magnetic field the neutrons acquire a new type of quadrupole moment $Q^{ij}= \chi\,\sigma^i B^j$ involving the components of spin and magnetic field. This "chiral magnetic" quadrupole moment arises from the interplay of the chiral anomaly and the magnetic field; we estimate its value for the neutron in the static limit, and find $\chi \simeq 1.35\cdot10^{-2}\,{\rm fm}^4$. The detection of the quadrupole moment of the neutron would provide a novel test of the role of the chiral anomaly in low-energy QCD and can be possible in the presence of both magnetic and inhomogeneous electric fields. The quadrupole moment of the neutron may affect e.g. the properties of neutron stars and magnetars.Comment: 2 pages; extended versio

Chiral Electronics

We consider the properties of electric circuits involving Weyl semimetals. The existence of the anomaly-induced chiral magnetic current in a Weyl semimetal subjected to magnetic field causes an interesting and unusual behavior of such circuits. We consider two explicit examples: i) a circuit involving the "chiral battery" and ii) a circuit that can be used as a "quantum amplifier" of magnetic field. The unique properties of these circuits stem from the chiral anomaly and may be utilized for creating "chiral electronic" devices.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures; final version to appear in Physical Review

Holographic Nuclear Matter in AdS/QCD

We study the physics with finite nuclear density in the framework of AdS/QCD with holographic baryon field included. Based on a mean field type approach, we introduce the nucleon density as a bi-fermion condensate of the lowest mode of the baryon field and calculate the density dependence of the chiral condensate and the nucleon mass. We observe that the chiral condensate as well as the mass of nucleon decrease with increasing nuclear density. We also consider the mass splitting of charged vector mesons in iso-spin asymmetric nuclear matter.Comment: 16 pages, 3 figures, two references are added, typo corrected, section 3.3 remove

1/2 BPS Geometries of M2 Giant Gravitons

We construct the general 1/2 BPS M2 giant graviton solutions asymptotic to the eleven-dimensional maximally supersymmetric plane wave background, based on the recent work of Lin, Lunin and Maldacena. The solutions have null singularity and we argue that it is unavoidable to have null singularity in the proposed framework, although the solutions are still physically relevant. They involve an arbitrary function F(x) which is shown to have a correspondence to the 1/2 BPS states of the BMN matrix model. A detailed map between the 1/2 BPS states of both sides is worked out.Comment: 21 pages and 1 figure. v2: references added, comments adde

Chiral magnetic wave at finite baryon density and the electric quadrupole moment of quark-gluon plasma in heavy ion collisions

Chiral Magnetic Wave (CMW) is a gapless collective excitation of quark-gluon plasma in the presence of external magnetic field that stems from the interplay of Chiral Magnetic (CME) and Chiral Separation Effects (CSE); it is composed by the waves of the electric and chiral charge densities coupled by the axial anomaly. We consider CMW 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 $v_2(\pi^+) < v_2(\pi^-)$, and estimate the magnitude of the effect.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Universality of plasmon excitations in Dirac semimetals

The recent experimental discovery of ${\rm Cd_3 As_2}$ and ${\rm Na_3 Bi}$ Dirac semimetals enables the study of the properties of chiral quasi-particles in three spatial dimensions. As demonstrated by photoemission, Dirac semimetals are characterized by a linear dispersion relation for fermion quasi-particles, and thus represent three dimensional analogs of graphene. While the distinctive behavior of chiral fermions (e.g. Klein tunneling) is already evident in two dimensional graphene, the physics of chirality in three dimensions opens a number of new possibilities. In this paper we investigate the properties of the collective plasmon excitations in Dirac semimetals by using the methods of relativistic field theory. We find a strong and narrow plasmon excitation whose frequency is in the terahertz (THz) range which may be important for practical applications. The properties of the plasmon appear universal for all Dirac semimetals, due to the large degeneracy of the quasi-particles and the small Fermi velocity, $v_F \ll c$. This universality is closely analogous to the phenomenon of "dimensional transmutation", that is responsible for the emergence of dimensionful scales in relativistic field theories such as Quantum Chromodynamics, the modern theory of nuclear physics.Comment: 11 pages, 3 figure

An Exploratory Investigation of Animal Hoarding Symptoms in a Sample of Adults Diagnosed With Hoarding Disorder

Objective: The extant research on animal hoarding has a dearth of information on animal hoarding tendencies in adults diagnosed with hoarding disorder (HD). In the present study, we investigated possible recurrent animal hoarding behavioral and symptom patterns in individuals diagnosed with hoarding disorder. Methods: Hoarding severity scores from baseline assessments for 65 community-dwelling adults diagnosed with HD were analyzed with respect to their present and past animal ownership characteristics. Results: Approximately half of participants reported currently owning pets, and pet owners in the sample reported currently owning an average of two pets. Of the participants who reported currently owning animals, 10% reported having no rules for their pets’ behaviors, 51% reported having made at least one sacrifice for their pets, 54% reported having had at least one pet in childhood, and 29% reported that they believed they have a “special ability” to communicate with their pets. The results of the present study suggest that animal hoarding is not necessarily present in individuals diagnosed with HD. Conclusion: No significant associations of current pet ownership characteristics with present hoarding severity were observed. Reported maximum number of pets owned in childhood was significantly correlated with present object hoarding symptom severity