Magnetic catalysis of a finite size pion condensate

TL;DR

This paper investigates how magnetic fields influence the Bose-Einstein condensation of finite size pion gases, revealing that magnetic flux can raise the critical temperature beyond finite size effects alone, with implications for heavy-ion collision experiments.

Contribution

It provides new expressions for the critical chemical potential and temperature for pion condensation under magnetic fields, incorporating finite size effects relevant to heavy-ion collisions.

Findings

Magnetic flux increases the critical temperature for pion condensation.

Finite size effects alone lower the critical temperature.

Magnetic fields can raise the critical temperature above the kinetic freeze-out temperature.

Abstract

We study the Bose-Einstein condensation of a finite size pion gas subject to the influence of a magnetic field. We find the expressions for the critical chemical potential and temperature for the onset of condensation. We show that for values of the external magnetic flux larger than the elemental flux, the critical temperature is larger than the one obtained by considering only finite size effects. We use experimentally reported values of pion source sizes and multiplicities at LHC energies to show that if the magnetic flux, produced initially in peripheral heavy-ion collision, is at least partially preserved up to the hadronic phase, the combined finite size and magnetic field effects give rise to a critical temperature above the kinetic freeze-out temperature. We discuss the implications for the evolution of the pion system created in relativistic heavy-ion collisions.