Large Nc Deconfinement Transition in the Presence of a Magnetic Field

TL;DR

This paper explores how a magnetic field influences the deconfinement transition temperature in large N_c QCD, revealing that magnetic fields lower the critical temperature primarily through quark paramagnetism.

Contribution

It provides a theoretical analysis of the magnetic field's impact on the deconfinement transition in large N_c QCD, including effects of quark mass and flavor.

Findings

Magnetic fields decrease the deconfinement critical temperature.

Quark paramagnetism is the main driver of this effect.

Finite quark mass influences the magnetic effects on the transition.

Abstract

We investigate the effect of a homogeneous magnetic field on the thermal deconfinement transition of QCD in the large $N_c$ limit. First we discuss how the critical temperature decreases due to the inclusion of $N_f \ll N_c$ flavors of massless quarks. Then we study the equivalent correction in the presence of an external Abelian magnetic field. To leading order in $N_{f}/N_{c}$, the fact that the deconfinement critical temperature decreases with the magnetic field depends solely on quarks behaving paramagnetically. Finally, we discuss the effects from a finite quark mass and its competition with magnetic effects.