Hall viscosity from effective field theory

Abstract

For two-dimensional non-dissipative fluids with broken parity, we show via effective field theory methods that the infrared dynamics generically exhibit Hall viscosity--a conservative form of viscosity compatible with two-dimensional isotropy. The equality between the Hall viscosity coefficient and the ground state's intrinsic angular momentum density follows straightforwardly from their descending from the same Lagrangian term of the low-energy effective action. We show that for such fluids sound waves are not purely longitudinal, but acquire an elliptical polarization, with transverse-to-longitudinal aspect ratio proportional to frequency. Our analysis is fully relativistic, thus providing a natural description of (2+1) dimensional relativistic fluids with broken parity.