charge separation (IMAGE)
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Earlier results from off-center collisions of gold ions at RHIC revealed an intriguing asymmetric separation of charged particles. In a given event, positively charged particles would emerge along the magnetic field (gray arrow) and negatively charged particles emerged in the opposite direction (other collisions produced the opposite separation). Scientists suspected this charge separation might be a hint of a "broken symmetry" within the hot matter, triggered through a process called the chiral magnetic effect. The collisions of isobars reported on today were designed to search for evidence of this effect by varying the strength of the magnetic field.
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Brookhaven National Laboratory
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