English

Magnetohydrodynamics as superfluidity

High Energy Physics - Theory 2019-04-17 v2 High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena Strongly Correlated Electrons General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology

Abstract

We show that relativistic magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) can be recast as a novel theory of superfluidity. This new theory formulates MHD just in terms of conservation equations, including dissipative effects, by introducing appropriate variables such as a magnetic scalar potential, and providing necessary and sufficient conditions to obtain equilibrium configurations. We show that this scalar potential can be interpreted as a Goldstone mode originating from the spontaneous breaking of a one-form symmetry, and present the most generic constitutive relations at one derivative order for a parity-preserving plasma in this new superfluid formulation.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1808.01939,
  title  = {Magnetohydrodynamics as superfluidity},
  author = {Jay Armas and Akash Jain},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1808.01939},
  year   = {2019}
}

Comments

v2: 6 pp; presentation improved; added example of magnetised star; to be published in PRL

R2 v1 2026-06-23T03:25:35.665Z