Medium Correction to Gravitational Form Factors

Abstract

We generalize the gravitational form factor for chiral fermion in vacuum, which reproduces the well-known spin-vorticity coupling. We also calculate radiative correction to the gravitational form factors in quantum electrodynamics plasma. We find two structures in the form factors contributing to the scattering amplitude of fermion in vorticity field, one is from the fermon self-energy correction, pointing to suppression of spin-vorticity coupling in medium; the other strucutre comes from graviton-fermion vertex correction, which does not adopt potential interpretation, but corresponds to transition matrix element between initial and final states. Both structures contribute to chiral vortical effect. The net effect is that radiative correction enhances the chiral vortical effect. Our results claify the relation and difference between spin-vorticity coupling and chiral vortical effect from the perspective of form factors. We also discuss the application of the results in QCD plasma, indicating radiative correction might have an appreciable effect in spin polarization effect in heavy ion collisions.