The overdamped chiral magnetic wave

Understand

About eight years ago it was predicted theoretically that a charged chiral plasma could support the propagation of the so-called chiral magnetic waves, which are driven by the anomalous chiral magnetic and chiral separation effects.

• This prompted intensive experimental efforts in search of signatures of such waves in relativistic heavy-ion collisions.
• In fact, several experiments have already reported a tentative detection of the predicted signal, albeit with a significant background contribution.
• Here, we critically reanalyze the theoretical foundations for the existence of the chiral magnetic waves.