Weyl Anomaly Induced Current in Boundary Quantum Field Theories

Abstract

We show that when an external magnetic field parallel to the boundary is applied, the Weyl anomaly gives rises to a new anomalous current in the vicinity of the boundary. The induced current is a magnetization current in origin: the movement of the virtual charges near the boundary give rise to a nonuniform magnetization of the vacuum and hence a magnetization current. Unlike other previously studied anomalous current phenomena such as the chiral magnetic effect or the chiral vortical effect, this induced current does not rely on the presence of a material system and can occur in vacuum. Similar to the Casimir effect, our discovered phenomenon arises from the effect of the boundary on the quantum fluctuations of the vacuum. However this induced current is purely quantum mechanical and has no classical limit. We briefly comment on how this induced current may be observed experimentally.