Hot dense magnetized ultrarelativistic spinor matter in a slab

Abstract

Properties of hot dense ultrarelativistic spinor matter in a slab of finite width, placed in a transverse uniform magnetic field, are studied. The admissible set of boundary conditions is determined by the requirement that spinor matter be confined inside the slab. In thermal equilibrium, the chiral separation effect in the slab is shown to depend on both temperature and chemical potential; this is distinct from the unrealistic case of the magnetic field filling the unbounded (infinite) medium, when the effect is temperature independent. In the realistic case of the slab, a stepwise behaviour of the axial current density at zero temperature is smoothed out as temperature increases, turning into a linear behaviour at infinitely large temperature. A choice of boundary conditions can facilitate either augmentation or attenuation of the chiral separation effect; in particular, the effect can persist even at zero chemical potential, if temperature is finite. Thus the boundary condition can serve as a source that is additional to the spinor matter density.