37 research outputs found
Magnetic Catalysis in AdS4
We study the formation of fermion condensates in Anti de Sitter space. In
particular, we describe a novel version of magnetic catalysis that arises for
fermions in asymptotically AdS4 geometries which cap off in the infra-red with
a hard wall. We show that the presence of a magnetic field induces a fermion
condensate in the bulk that spontaneously breaks CP symmetry. From the
perspective of the dual boundary theory, this corresponds to a strongly coupled
version of magnetic catalysis in d=2+1.Comment: 22 pages, 4 figures. v2: References added, factors of 2 corrected,
extra comments added in appendix. v3: extra comments about fermion modes in a
hard wall background. v4: A final factor of
D3/D7 Quark-Gluon Plasma with Magnetically Induced Anisotropy
We study the effects of the temperature and of a magnetic field in the setup
of an intersection of D3/D7 branes, where a large number of D7 branes is
smeared in the transverse directions to allow for a perturbative solution in a
backreaction parameter. The magnetic field sources an anisotropy in the plasma,
and we investigate its physical consequences for the thermodynamics and energy
loss of particles probing the system. In particular we comment on the
stress-energy tensor of the plasma, the propagation of sound in the directions
parallel and orthogonal to the magnetic field, the drag force of a quark moving
through the medium and jet quenching.Comment: 29 pages + appendices, 5 figures. v2 Version to appear in JHEP, with
minor revisions, references added and typos correcte
Flavor-symmetry Breaking with Charged Probes
We discuss the recombination of brane/anti-brane pairs carrying brane
charge in . These configurations are dual to co-dimension one
defects in the super-Yang-Mills description. Due to their
charge, these defects are actually domain walls in the dual gauge theory,
interpolating between vacua of different gauge symmetry. A pair of unjoined
defects each carry localized dimensional fermions and possess a global
flavor symmetry while the recombined brane/anti-brane pairs
exhibit only a diagonal U(N). We study the thermodynamics of this
flavor-symmetry breaking under the influence of external magnetic field.Comment: 21 pages, 10 figure
Inverse magnetic catalysis in dense holographic matter
We study the chiral phase transition in a magnetic field at finite
temperature and chemical potential within the Sakai-Sugimoto model, a
holographic top-down approach to (large-N_c) QCD. We consider the limit of a
small separation of the flavor D8-branes, which corresponds to a dual field
theory comparable to a Nambu-Jona Lasinio (NJL) model. Mapping out the surface
of the chiral phase transition in the parameter space of magnetic field
strength, quark chemical potential, and temperature, we find that for small
temperatures the addition of a magnetic field decreases the critical chemical
potential for chiral symmetry restoration - in contrast to the case of
vanishing chemical potential where, in accordance with the familiar phenomenon
of magnetic catalysis, the magnetic field favors the chirally broken phase.
This "inverse magnetic catalysis" (IMC) appears to be associated with a
previously found magnetic phase transition within the chirally symmetric phase
that shows an intriguing similarity to a transition into the lowest Landau
level. We estimate IMC to persist up to 10^{19} G at low temperatures.Comment: 42 pages, 11 figures, v3: extended discussion; new appendix D;
references added; version to appear in JHE
Inverse magnetic catalysis in field theory and gauge-gravity duality
We investigate the surface of the chiral phase transition in the
three-dimensional parameter space of temperature, baryon chemical potential and
magnetic field in two different approaches, the field-theoretical
Nambu-Jona-Lasinio (NJL) model and the holographic Sakai-Sugimoto model. The
latter is a top-down approach to a gravity dual of QCD with an asymptotically
large number of colors and becomes, in a certain limit, dual to an NJL-like
model. Our main observation is that, at nonzero chemical potential, a magnetic
field can restore chiral symmetry, in apparent contrast to the phenomenon of
magnetic catalysis. This "inverse magnetic catalysis" occurs in the
Sakai-Sugimoto model and, for sufficiently large coupling, in the NJL model and
is related to the physics of the lowest Landau level. While in most parts our
discussion is a pedagogical review of previously published results, we include
new analytical results for the NJL approach and a thorough comparison of
inverse magnetic catalysis in the two approaches.Comment: 37 pages, 11 figures, to appear in Lect. Notes Phys. "Strongly
interacting matter in magnetic fields" (Springer), edited by D. Kharzeev, K.
Landsteiner, A. Schmitt, H.-U. Ye
Magnetic Catalysis: A Review
We give an overview of the magnetic catalysis phenomenon. In the framework of
quantum field theory, magnetic catalysis is broadly defined as an enhancement
of dynamical symmetry breaking by an external magnetic field. We start from a
brief discussion of spontaneous symmetry breaking and the role of a magnetic
field in its a dynamics. This is followed by a detailed presentation of the
essential features of the phenomenon. In particular, we emphasize that the
dimensional reduction plays a profound role in the pairing dynamics in a
magnetic field. Using the general nature of underlying physics and its
robustness with respect to interaction types and model content, we argue that
magnetic catalysis is a universal and model-independent phenomenon. In support
of this claim, we show how magnetic catalysis is realized in various models
with short-range and long-range interactions. We argue that the general nature
of the phenomenon implies a wide range of potential applications: from certain
types of solid state systems to models in cosmology, particle and nuclear
physics. We finish the review with general remarks about magnetic catalysis and
an outlook for future research.Comment: 37 pages, to appear in Lect. Notes Phys. "Strongly interacting matter
in magnetic fields" (Springer), edited by D. Kharzeev, K. Landsteiner, A.
Schmitt, H.-U. Yee. Version 2: references adde
Holographic rho mesons in an external magnetic field
We study the rho meson in a uniform magnetic field eB using a holographic
QCD-model, more specifically a D4/D8/Dbar8 brane setup in the confinement phase
at zero temperature with two quenched flavours. The parameters of the model are
fixed by matching to corresponding dual field theory parameters at zero
magnetic field. We show that the up- and down-flavour branes respond
differently to the presence of the magnetic field in the dual QCD-like theory,
as expected because of the different electromagnetic charge carried by up- and
down-quark. We discuss how to recover the Landau levels, indicating an
instability of the QCD vacuum at eB = m_rho^2 towards a phase where charged rho
mesons are condensed, as predicted by Chernodub using effective QCD-models. We
improve on these existing effective QCD-model analyses by also taking into
account the chiral magnetic catalysis effect, which tells us that the
constituent quark masses rise with eB. This turns out to increase the value of
the critical magnetic field for the onset of rho meson condensation to eB = 1.1
m_rho^2 = 0.67 GeV^2. We briefly discuss the influence of pions, which turn out
to be irrelevant for the condensation in the approximation made.Comment: 26 pages, 10 .pdf figures, v2: version accepted for publication in
JHE
Lattice QCD Simulations in External Background Fields
We discuss recent results and future prospects regarding the investigation,
by lattice simulations, of the non-perturbative properties of QCD and of its
phase diagram in presence of magnetic or chromomagnetic background fields.
After a brief introduction to the formulation of lattice QCD in presence of
external fields, we focus on studies regarding the effects of external fields
on chiral symmetry breaking, on its restoration at finite temperature and on
deconfinement. We conclude with a few comments regarding the effects of
electromagnetic background fields on gluodynamics.Comment: 31 pages, 10 figures, minor changes and references added. To appear
in Lect. Notes Phys. "Strongly interacting matter in magnetic fields"
(Springer), edited by D. Kharzeev, K. Landsteiner, A. Schmitt, H.-U. Ye
Towards a Holographic Model of the QCD Phase Diagram
We describe the temperature-chemical potential phase diagrams of holographic
models of a range of strongly coupled gauge theories that display chiral
symmetry breaking/restoration transitions. The models are based on the
D3/probe-D7 system but with a phenomenologically chosen running
coupling/dilaton profile. We realize chiral phase transitions with either
temperature or density that are first or second order by changing the dilaton
profile. Although the models are only caricatures of QCD they show that
holographic models can capture many aspects of the QCD phase diagram and hint
at the dependence on the running coupling.Comment: 11 pages, 9 figures, v2: minor corrections, Invited contribution to
an AdS/CFT edition of Journal of Physics