Hot nuclear matter in super-intense electromagnetic fields

Ultra-relativistic heavy-ion collisions produce hot nuclear matter known as the quark-gluon plasma.  Along with the plasma, these collisions also create the strongest in nature electromagnetic fields. It has been recently realized that owing to its peculiar kinetic properties the quark-gluon plasma sustains these fields for a long time making possible their experimental investigation. This presents an exciting opportunity to study the physics of strongly interacting matter in intense electromagnetic field, in particular, a variety of surprising and intriguing phenomena that emerge from the interplay of quantum anomalies, the topology of non-Abelian gauge fields, and the electromagnetic field.