Effects of strong magnetic fields on quark matter and $\pi^0$ properties within nonlocal chiral quark models

TL;DR

This paper investigates how strong magnetic fields affect quark matter and neutral pion properties using nonlocal chiral quark models, revealing phenomena like magnetic catalysis and inverse magnetic catalysis, and comparing results with lattice QCD.

Contribution

It introduces a nonlocal chiral quark model approach to study magnetic field effects on quark condensates and pion properties, providing new insights into magnetic catalysis phenomena.

Findings

Magnetic catalysis enhances chiral symmetry breaking at zero temperature.

Inverse magnetic catalysis reduces the critical temperature for chiral restoration.

Model predictions align with lattice QCD results on pion mass and decay constant.

Abstract

We study the behavior of strongly interacting matter under a strong external magnetic field in the context of chiral quark models that include nonlocal interactions. In particular, we analyze the influence of a constant magnetic field on the chiral quark condensates at zero and finite temperature, studying the deconfinement and chiral restoration critical temperatures and discussing the observed "magnetic catalysis" and "inverse magnetic catalysis" effects. In addition, we analyze in this framework the behavior of the $\pi^0$ mass and decay constant. The predictions of nonlocal chiral quark models are compared with results obtained in lattice QCD.