Magnetic field effect on nuclear matter from skyrmion crystal model

TL;DR

This paper investigates how magnetic fields influence nuclear matter using a skyrmion crystal model, revealing magnetic catalysis of topological phase transitions and effects on chiral condensates and baryon shapes, with implications for compact stars.

Contribution

It is the first study to analyze magnetic field effects on nuclear matter within the skyrmion crystal framework, highlighting magnetic catalysis and structural deformations.

Findings

Magnetic fields catalyze topological phase transitions in skyrmion matter.

Inhomogeneous chiral condensates persist and become localized under strong magnetic fields.

High magnetic fields distort baryon shapes and significantly affect crystal structures at high densities.

Abstract

We explore magnetic field effects on the nuclear matter based on the skrymion crystal approach for the first time. It is found that the magnetic effect plays the role of a catalyzer for the topological phase transition (topological deformation for the skyrmion crystal configuration from the skrymion phase to half-skyrmion phase). Furthermore, we observe that in the presence of the magnetic field, the inhomogeneous chiral condensate persists both in the skyrmion and half-skyrmion phases. Explicitly, as the strength of magnetic field gets larger, the inhomogeneous chiral condensate in the skyrmion phase tends to be drastically localized, while in the half-skyrmion phase the inhomogeneity configuration is hardly affected. It also turns out that a large magnetic effect in a low density region distorts the baryon shape to an elliptic form but the crystal structure is intact. However, in a high density region, the crystal structure is strongly effected by the strong magnetic field. A possible correlation between the chiral inhomogeneity and the deformation of the skrymion configuration is also addressed. The results obtained in this paper might be realized in the deep interior of compact stars.