A1 Journal article (refereed)
Chiral Instabilities and the Onset of Chiral Turbulence in QED Plasmas (2020)

Mace, M., Mueller, N., Schlichting, S., & Sharma, S. (2020). Chiral Instabilities and the Onset of Chiral Turbulence in QED Plasmas. Physical Review Letters, 124(19), Article 191604. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.124.191604

JYU authors or editors

Publication details

All authors or editors: Mace, Mark; Mueller, Niklas; Schlichting, Soeren; Sharma, Sayantan

Journal or series: Physical Review Letters

ISSN: 0031-9007

eISSN: 1079-7114

Publication year: 2020

Volume: 124

Issue number: 19

Article number: 191604

Publisher: American Physical Society

Publication country: United States

Publication language: English

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.124.191604

Publication open access: Openly available

Publication channel open access: Partially open access channel

Publication is parallel published (JYX): https://jyx.jyu.fi/handle/123456789/69894

Web address of parallel published publication (pre-print): https://arxiv.org/abs/1910.01654

Abstract

We present a first principles study of chiral plasma instabilities and the onset of chiral turbulence in QED plasmas with strong gauge matter interaction (e2Nf=64), far from equilibrium. By performing classical-statistical lattice simulations of the microscopic theory, we show that the generation of strong helical magnetic fields from a helicity imbalance in the fermion sector proceeds via three distinct phases. During the initial linear instability regime the helicity imbalance of the fermion sector causes an exponential growth (damping) of magnetic field modes with right- (left-) handed polarization, for which we extract the characteristic growth (damping) rates. Secondary growth of unstable modes accelerates the helicity transfer from fermions to gauge fields and ultimately leads to the emergence of a self-similar scaling regime characteristic of a decaying turbulence, where magnetic helicity is efficiently transferred to macroscopic length scales. Within this turbulent regime, the evolution of magnetic helicity spectrum can be described by an infrared power spectrum with spectral exponent κ=10.2±0.5 and dynamical scaling exponents α=1.14±0.50 and β=0.37±0.13.

Keywords: particle physics; quantum field theory; plasma (gases)

Free keywords: lattice field theory; plasma instabilitiles

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Ministry reporting: Yes

Reporting Year: 2020

JUFO rating: 3