Phase diagram of strong interactions in an external magnetic field

Abstract

We obtain the phase diagram of strong interactions in the presence of a magnetic field within the linear sigma model coupled to quarks and to the Polyakov loop, and show that the chiral and deconfinement lines can split. We also study the behavior of the chiral condensate in this magnetic environment and find an approximately linear dependence on the external field, in accordance with lattice data. © Copyright owned by the author(s) under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike Licence.