  We consider the low energy realization of QCD in terms of mesons when an
axial chemical potential is present; a situation that may be relevant in heavy
ion collisions. We shall demonstrate that the presence of an axial charge has
profound consequences on meson physics. The most notorious effect is the
appearance of an explicit source of parity breaking. The eigenstates of strong
interactions do not have a definite parity and interactions that would
otherwise be forbidden compete with the familiar ones. In this work we focus on
scalars and pseudoscalars that are described by a generalized linear sigma
model. We comment briefly on the screening role of axial vectors in formation
of effective axial charge and on the possible experimental relevance of our
results, whose consequences may have been already seen at RHIC.
