Magnetohydrodynamics and charged flow in heavy ion collisions

Strong magnetic fields are generated in any heavy ion collision with a nonzero impact parameter. These magnetic fields induce electric currents in the hot QCD matter produced in these collisions on the reaction plane. We study the imprint of these electric currents on the azimuthal distributions and correlations of the produced charged hadrons. In particular we find that these currents result in a charge-dependent directed flow v₁ that is odd in rapidity and odd under charge exchange and a charge-dependent elliptic flow v₂ that is even in rapidity. They can be detected by measuring correlations between the directed flow of charged hadrons at different rapidities, 〈v_n ^±(y₁)v_n ^±(y₂)〉.