Neutral-pion reactions induced by chiral anomaly in strong magnetic fields

Abstract: We investigate decay and production of neutral pions in strong magnetic fields. In the presence of strong magnetic fields, transition between a neutral pion and a virtual photon becomes possible through the triangle diagram relevant for the chiral anomaly. We find that the decay mode of a neutral pion into two photons cannot persist in the dominant mode in strong magnetic fields, and that decay into a dilepton instead dominates over the other modes. We also investigate the effects of magnetic fields on prompt virtual photons created in ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions. There is no anisotropy in the spectrum at the stage of creation of prompt virtual photons, but after traversing the strong magnetic field that is induced perpendicularly to the reaction plane, virtual photons turn into neutral pions, leading to an anisotropic spectrum of dileptons as a feasible signature in the measurement.