Anomalous Transport Due to the Conformal Anomaly

Abstract

We show that the scale (conformal) anomaly in field theories leads to new anomalous transport effects that emerge in an external electromagnetic field in an inhomogeneous gravitational background. In inflating geometry the QED scale anomaly locally generates an electric current that flows in opposite direction with respect to background electric field (the scale electric effect). In a static spatially inhomogeneous gravitational background the dissipationless electric current flows transversely both to the magnetic field axis and to the gradient of the inhomogeneity (the scale magnetic effect). The anomalous currents are proportional to the beta function of the theory.

6 pages, 2 figures; v2: clarifying remarks added, relation to the Schwinger effect in de Sitter space discussed, published version

References in corpus (15)

• The Chiral Magnetic Effect
• Relativistic viscous hydrodynamics, conformal invariance, and holography
• Gravitational Anomaly and Transport
• Quantum Anomalies in Dense Matter
• Elastic Gauge Fields in Weyl Semimetals
• Entropy Current in Conformal Hydrodynamics
• Schwinger Effect in 4D de Sitter Space and Constraints on Magnetogenesis in the Early Universe
• Torsion, Parity-odd Response and Anomalies in Topological States
• Fermionic Schwinger effect and induced current in de Sitter space
• Entropy Current from Partition Function: One Example
• Scalar current of created pairs by Schwinger mechanism in de Sitter spacetime
• Emergent gravity and chiral anomaly in Dirac semimetals in the presence of dislocations
• One-Loop Effective Action and Schwinger Effect in (Anti-) de Sitter Space
• Point splitting renormalization of Schwinger induced current in de Sitter spacetime
• Second-order partition function of a non-interacting chiral fluid in 3+1 dimensions

Cited by in corpus (33)

• Thermal transport, geometry, and anomalies
• A Nernst current from the conformal anomaly in Dirac and Weyl semimetals
• Chiral torsional effect
• Anomalous Transport in Holographic Boundary Conformal Field Theories
• Weyl Anomaly Induced Current in Boundary Quantum Field Theories
• Chiral sound waves in strained Weyl semimetals
• Anatomy of the chiral vortical effect
• Scale Magnetic Effect in Quantum Electrodynamics and the Wigner-Weyl Formalism
• Weyl, Pontryagin, Euler, Eguchi and Freund
• Fermi Condensation induced by Weyl Anomaly
• Conformal magnetic effect at the edge: a numerical study in scalar QED
• Direct measurement of a beta function and an indirect check of the Schwinger effect near the boundary in Dirac-Weyl semimetals
• Anomalous Gravitational TTT Vertex, Temperature Inhomogeneity, and Pressure Anisotropy
• Weyl Anomaly induced Fermi Condensation and Holography
• Anomalous Current Due to Weyl Anomaly for Conformal Field Theory
• Precise Wigner-Weyl calculus for lattice models
• Dynamic scale anomalous transport in QCD with electromagnetic background
• Anomalous Luttinger equivalence between temperature and curved spacetime: From black hole's atmosphere to thermal quenches
• Note on anomalous currents for a free theory
• Unconventional thermoelectric transport in tilted Weyl semimetals
• Holographic Anomalous Chiral Current Near a Boundary
• Chiral current induced by torsional Weyl anomaly
• Conformal anomaly and helicity effects in kinetic theory via scale-dependent coupling
• Discrete Wigner-Weyl calculus for the finite lattice
• Hall conductivity as topological invariant in phase space
• Wigner - Weyl formalism and the propagator of Wilson fermions in the presence of varying external electromagnetic field
• Holographic Anomalous Current at a Finite Temperature
• Anomalous transport independent of gauge fields
• Introduction to the special issue dedicated to Michael J. Duff FRS on the occasion of his 70th birthday
• Enhancement of Anomalous Boundary Current by High Temperature
• Hall conductivity of strained $Z_2$ crystals
• Conformal anomaly transport induced by dark photon
• Thermoelectric relations in the conformal limit in Dirac and Weyl semimetals