Chiral Soliton Lattice and Charged Pion Condensation in Strong Magnetic Fields

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that the Chiral Soliton Lattice (CSL) can be the ground state of QCD in magnetic fields and predicts charged pion Bose-Einstein condensation under strong magnetic conditions, using a model-independent analytic approach.

Contribution

It reveals the emergence of CSL as a ground state in QCD with magnetic fields and predicts charged pion condensation, extending known phenomena in chiral magnets to high-energy physics.

Findings

CSL appears as a ground state in QCD at nonzero chemical potential and magnetic field.

Charged pions undergo Bose-Einstein condensation in strong magnetic fields.

Results are model-independent and analytically derived.

Abstract

The Chiral Soliton Lattice (CSL) is a state with a periodic array of topological solitons that spontaneously breaks parity and translational symmetries. Such a state is known to appear in chiral magnets. We show that CSL also appears as a ground state of quantum chromodynamics at nonzero chemical potential in a magnetic field. By analyzing the fluctuations of the CSL, we furthermore demonstrate that in strong but achievable magnetic fields, charged pions undergo Bose-Einstein condensation. Our results, based on a systematic low-energy effective theory, are model-independent and fully analytic.