Formation and Decay of Chiral Condensates in Relativistic Heavy Ion Collisions

We discuss the various physics aspects of hypothetical, coherent excitations of the pion field caused by spontaneously generated local distortions of the chiral order parameter. Such distortions, which may occur in the expansion of a hot fireball created in relativistic nuclear collisions, may be influenced or even triggered by the interaction with strong electromagnetic fields through the axial anomaly. We suggest that semiperipheral collisions may provide the best environment for the formation of these disoriented chiral condensates.