Octet Baryons in Large Magnetic Fields

TL;DR

This paper uses chiral perturbation theory to analyze octet baryons in large magnetic fields, revealing non-analytic energy dependencies and proposing tests for hyperon polarizabilities through lattice QCD.

Contribution

It introduces a power counting scheme for large magnetic fields and explores decuplet-octet mixing effects on baryon energies, providing a new theoretical framework.

Findings

Baryon energies depend non-analytically on magnetic field strength.

Hyperon magnetic polarizabilities can be tested via lattice QCD.

Decuplet-octet mixing influences baryon energy levels.

Abstract

Magnetic properties of octet baryons are investigated within the framework of chiral perturbation theory. Utilizing a power counting for large magnetic fields, the Landau levels of charged mesons are treated exactly giving rise to baryon energies that depend non-analytically on the strength of the magnetic field. In the small-field limit, baryon magnetic moments and polarizabilities emerge from the calculated energies. We argue that the magnetic polarizabilities of hyperons provide a testing ground for potentially large contributions from decuplet pole diagrams. In external magnetic fields, such contributions manifest themselves through decuplet-octet mixing, for which possible results are compared in a few scenarios. These scenarios can be tested with lattice QCD calculations of the octet baryon energies in magnetic fields.