Examining the Anomalous Nature of Chiral Effects in Thermodynamics

Abstract: Quantum anomalies give rise to novel transport phenomena, including the generation of a current in a relativistic fluid due to the presence of magnetic field or vorticity. We present an exclusive and direct computation of the chiral anomaly within the path integral for a massless fermion on a generic electromagnetic and curved background, including local temperature and chemical potential. We identify new thermodynamical contributions to the anomaly which induce the Chiral Separation and Vortical Effects. Additionally, we show that the anomaly fully vanishes at global equilibrium.