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Search for the chiral magnetic effect through beam energy dependence of charge separation using event shape selection
Resource type
Authors/contributors
- STAR Collaboration (Author)
- Finch, Evan (Contributor)
Title
Search for the chiral magnetic effect through beam energy dependence of charge separation using event shape selection
Abstract
High-energy, heavy-ion collisions can create local domains of chirality-imbalanced quarks, reflecting the topological features of quantum chromodynamics. The chiral magnetic effect (CME) predicts an electric charge separation of quarks in such topological domains along the magnetic field (B) generated by the passing of two high-Z nuclei. We use a correlation observable Δγ112 between charged meson pairs to detect the CME-induced charge separation and a novel event shape selection (ESS) method to mitigate the background effects related to elliptic flow (v2). The ESS method classifies events based on the emission pattern of final-state particles and determines Δγ(Formula presented) from the zero-flow limit. We reconstruct the B field direction from the spectator nucleons, which minimizes backgrounds unrelated to the collective motion of the system. In this work, we report the measurements of Δγ112 and a background indicator Δγ132 in Au + Au collisions from the Brookhaven National Laboratory Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) Beam Energy Scan phase II and at the top RHIC energy. After background suppression, Δγ(Formula presented) aligns with zero, and Δγ(Formula presented) is reduced to no more than 20% of Δγ112. We observe a finite residual charge separation with 2.5σ, 3σ, and 3.2σ significance in the 20-50% centrality range of Au + Au collisions at 11.5, 14.6, and 19.6 GeV. The results at 17.3 and 27 GeV also show positive values but with a lower significance of 1.3σ and 1.1σ, respectively. The corresponding ΔγΈ5ΕΕ values at 7.7, 9.2, and 200 GeV are consistent with zero within uncertainties. © (2026), (American Physical Society). All right reserved.
Publication
Physical Review C
Publisher
American Physical Society
Date
2026
Volume
113
Issue
1
Journal Abbr
Phys. Rev. C
Citation Key
aboonaSearchChiralMagnetic2026
ISSN
2469-9985
Language
English
Library Catalog
Scopus
Citation
STAR Collaboration. (2026). Search for the chiral magnetic effect through beam energy dependence of charge separation using event shape selection. Physical Review C, 113(1). https://doi.org/10.1103/PJ7S-9YM7
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