Second order chiral kinetic theory under gravity and antiparallel charge-energy flow

Abstract: We derive the chiral kinetic theory under the presence of a gravitational Riemann curvature. It is well-known that in the chiral kinetic theory there inevitably appears a redundant ambiguous vector corresponding to the choice of the Lorentz frame. We reveal that on top of this conventional frame choosing vector, higher-order quantum correction to the chiral kinetic theory brings an additional degrees of freedom to specify the distribution function. Based on this framework, we derive new types of fermionic transport, that is, the charge current and energy-momentum tensor induced by the gravitational Riemann curvature. Such novel phenomena arise not only under genuine gravity but also in a (pseudo-)relativistic fluid, for which inhomogeneous vorticity or temperature are effectively represented by spacetime metric tensor. It is especially found that the charge and energy currents are antiparallelly induced by an inhomogeneous fluid vorticity (more generally, by the Ricci tensor ${R_0}^i$), as a consequence of the spin-curvature coupling. We also briefly discuss possible applications to Weyl/Dirac semimetals and heavy-ion collision experiments.