Inverse magnetic catalysis in the linear sigma model with quarks

TL;DR

This paper investigates how magnetic fields influence the chiral transition temperature in the linear sigma model with quarks, revealing that the critical temperature decreases mainly due to charged pions, supporting the concept of inverse magnetic catalysis.

Contribution

The study incorporates quark and thermo-magnetic effects at one loop in the linear sigma model, highlighting the dominant role of charged pions in inverse magnetic catalysis.

Findings

Critical temperature decreases with increasing magnetic field.

Fermions have a minor effect on the critical temperature.

Charged pions primarily drive the inverse magnetic catalysis phenomenon.

Abstract

We compute the critical temperature for the chiral transition in the background of a magnetic field in the linear sigma model, including the quark contribution and the thermo-magnetic effects induced on the coupling constants at one loop level. We show that the critical temperature decreases as a function of the field strength. The effect of fermions on the critical temperature is small and the main effect on this observable comes from the charged pions. The findings support the idea that the anticatalysis phenomenon receives a contribution due only to quiral symmetry effects independent of the deconfinement transition.