# Charge-dependent flow measurements and the search for the chiral magnetic wave in Pb-Pb collisions at 2.76 TeV

Submission Date:
17/12/2015
Article Information
Submission Form
System:
Pb-Pb
Energy:
2.76 TeV
Abstract Plain Text:

The possibility for local parity (P-)violation in QCD has long been area of active investigation in the literature.  Ultra-relativistic heavy ion collisions present a unique opportunity to access possible P-violating regions of the QCD vacuum.  Local P-violation gives rise to two related phenomena, the Chiral Separation Effect (CSE) and the Chiral Magnetic Effect (CME). The coupling between these two phenomena creates a wave-like excitation called the Chiral Magnetic Wave (CMW).  The CMW creates a quadrupole moment in the electric charge distribution of the plasma, and always has the same sign for a given charge state of the plasma.  This means the signal survives in an average over events and is therefore directly accessible in experiments. In this paper, we report on the measurement of charge dependent flow observables measured by the ALICE experiment at the LHC, and discuss the implications for local P-violation and the CMW in heavy ion collisions.