Lowest Landau Level Approximation Research Articles

Magnetic corrections to the QCD coupling: Strong field approximation

We compute the one-loop vertex function of the QCD coupling in the presence of an ultraintense magnetic field. From the vertex function, we extract the effective coupling and show that it grows with increasing magnetic field. We consider the quark-gluon vertex and the three-gluon vertex, accounting for the propagators of charged particles within the loops using the lowest Landau level approximation in order to satisfy the condition where the magnetic field is the largest energy scale. Under this approximation, we find that the contribution from the three-gluon vertex vanishes. Therefore, this result arises from the competition between the color charge associated to gluons and to quarks as well, with the former being larger than the latter. The behavior of the QCD coupling as a function of the magnetic field strength is analogous to that exhibited by the light-quark condensate, indicating the magnetic catalysis occurs. This increasing behavior stems from the dominant contribution of color charge associated to gluons in the vertex function. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Responses of quark-antiquark interactions and heavy quark dynamics to magnetic fields

We investigate the impact of the magnetic field generated by colliding nuclei on heavy quark-antiquark interactions and heavy quark dynamics in the quark-gluon plasma (QGP). By means of the hard-thermal-loop resummation technique combined with dimension-two gluon condensates, the static heavy quark potential and heavy quark momentum diffusion coefficient, which incorporate both perturbative and nonperturbative interactions between heavy quarks and the QGP medium, are computed beyond the lowest Landau level approximation. We find that the imaginary part of the heavy quark potential in the magnetic field exhibits significant anisotropy. Specifically, the absolute value of the imaginary part is larger when the quark-antiquark separation is aligned perpendicular to the magnetic field direction, compared to when it is aligned parallel to the magnetic field direction. The heavy quark momentum diffusion coefficient in the magnetized QGP medium also becomes anisotropic. As the temperature rises, the influence of higher Landau levels becomes increasingly significant, resulting in a decrease in the anisotropy ratio of the heavy quark momentum diffusion coefficient to values even below 1. At sufficiently high temperatures, this ratio ultimately approaches 1. The nonperturbative interactions are indispensable for understanding heavy quark dynamics in the low-temperature region. We also study the response of viscous quark matter to the magnetic field and explore its implications for heavy quark potential, thermal decay widths of quarkonium states, as well as heavy quark momentum diffusion coefficient. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Magic Angles and Fractional Chern Insulators in Twisted Homobilayer Transition Metal Dichalcogenides.

We explain the appearance of magic angles and fractional Chern insulators in twisted K-valley homobilayer transition metal dichalcogenides by mapping their continuum model to a Landau level problem. Our approach relies on an adiabatic approximation for the quantum mechanics of valence band holes in a layer-pseudospin field that is valid for sufficiently small twist angles and on a lowest Landau level approximation that is valid for sufficiently large twist angles. It provides a simple qualitative explanation for the nearly ideal quantum geometry of the lowest moiré miniband at particular twist angles, predicts that topological flat bands occur only when the valley-dependent moiré potential is sufficiently strong compared to the interlayer tunneling amplitude, and provides a convenient starting point for the study of interactions.

Collective modes of gluons in an anisotropic thermomagnetic medium

We study the collective modes of gluons in an anisotropic thermal medium in the presence of a constant background magnetic field using the hard-thermal-loop perturbation theory. The momentum space anisotropy of the medium has been incorporated through the generalized Romatschke-Strickland form of the distribution function, whereas the magnetic modification arising from the quark loop contribution has been taken into account in the lowest Landau level approximation. We consider two special cases: (i) a spheroidal anisotropy with the anisotropy vector orthogonal to the external magnetic field and (ii) an ellipsoidal anisotropy with two mutually orthogonal vectors describing anisotropies along and orthogonal to the field direction. The general structure of the polarization tensor in both cases is equivalent and consists of six independent basis tensors. We find that the introduction of momentum anisotropy ingrains azimuthal angular dependence in the thermomagnetic collective modes. Our study suggests that the presence of a strong background magnetic field can significantly reduce the growth rate of the unstable modes, which may have important implications in the equilibration of magnetized quark-gluon plasma.

Surface waves and bulk Ruderman mode of a bosonic superfluid vortex crystal in the lowest Landau level

We determine and analyze collective normal modes of a finite disk-shaped two-dimensional vortex crystal formed in a compressible bosonic superfluid in an artificial magnetic field. Using the microscopic Gross-Pitaevskii theory in the lowest Landau level approximation, we generate vortex crystal ground states and solve the Bogoliubov-de Gennes equations for small amplitude collective oscillations. We find chiral surface waves that propagate at frequencies larger than those of the bulk Tkachenko modes. Furthermore, we study low frequency bulk excitations and identify a torsional Ruderman mode, which we find is well-described by a previously developed low-energy effective field theory.

In-medium polarization tensor in strong magnetic fields (II): Axial Ward identity at finite temperature and density

We investigate the axial Ward identity (AWI) for massive fermions in strong magnetic fields. The divergence of the axial–vector current is computed at finite temperature and/or density with the help of a relation between the polarization and anomaly diagrams in the effective (1+1) dimensions realized in the lowest Landau level (LLL). We discuss delicate interplay between the vacuum and medium contributions that determines patterns of the spectral flow in the adiabatic limit and, more generally, the diabatic chirality production rate. We also establish an explicit relation between the AWIs from the LLL approximation and from the familiar triangle diagrams in the naive perturbative series with respect to the coupling constant.

In-medium polarization tensor in strong magnetic fields (I): Magneto-birefringence at finite temperature and density

We investigate in-medium polarization effects of the fermion and antifermion pairs at finite temperature and density in strong magnetic fields within the lowest Landau level approximation. Inspecting the integral representation of the polarization tensor by analytic and numerical methods, we provide both the real and imaginary parts of the polarization tensor obtained after delicate interplay between the vacuum and medium contributions essentially due to the Pauli-blocking effect. Especially, we provide a complete analytic form of the polarization tensor at zero temperature and finite density that exhibits an exact cancellation and associated relocation of the singular threshold behaviors for a single photon decay to a fermion and antifermion pair. As a physical application of the in-medium polarization tensor, we discuss the magneto-birefringence that is polarization-dependent dispersion relations of photons induced by the strong magnetic fields.

Two-point functions from chiral kinetic theory in magnetized plasma

We study the two-point functions from chiral kinetic theory which characterize the response to perturbative vector and axial gauge fields in magnetized chiral plasma. In the lowest Landau level approximation, the solution of chiral kinetic equations gives density waves of electric and axial charges, which contain chiral magnetic wave implied by the axial anomaly and magnetic field. We then obtain the constitutive relations for covariant currents and stress tensor that involving the density waves. By considering the difference between consistent and covariant anomalies explicitly, the correlators of consistent currents and stress tensor satisfy derivative symmetry, and therefore allow an effective action for the perturbative gauge fields as the generating functional of the correlators. We also verify the derivative symmetry of the correlators agrees with the Onsager relations.

Compressibility of quark matter under strong magnetic field in the NJL model

The compressibility of magnetized quark matter is investigated in the SU(2) NJL model. The increases of the chemical potential and the temperature can reduce the compressibility, and lead to the much stiffer equation of state. The variation of the compressibility with the magnetic field will depend on the phase region. Due to the anisotropic structure, the compressibility is different in the directions parallel and perpendicular to the field. The discontinuity of longitudinal compressibility with the chemical potential and the temperature captures the signature of a first-order chiral phase transition and the crossover at high temperature. Moreover, the magnetic-field-and-temperature running coupling would have an important effect on the position of the phase transition. Under the lowest landau level approximation at zero temperature, the longitudinal compressibility has a direct inverse proportional relation to the magnetic field strength and the chemical potential square as ${\ensuremath{\kappa}}_{\mathrm{LLL},\ensuremath{\chi}}^{\ensuremath{\parallel}}\ensuremath{\propto}1/(eB{\ensuremath{\mu}}^{2})$.

Macroscopic transports in a rotational system with an electromagnetic field

In this work, we explore macroscopic transport phenomena associated with a rotational system in the presence of an external orthogonal electromagnetic field. Simply based on the lowest Landau level approximation, we derive nontrivial expressions for chiral density and various currents consistently by adopting small angular velocity expansion or Kubo formula. While the generation of anomalous electric current is due to the pseudo gauge field effect of the spin-rotation coupling, the chiral density and current can be simply explained with the help of Lorentz boosts. Finally, Lorentz covariant forms can be obtained by unifying our results and the magnetovorticity effect.

Thermoelectric properties of the (an-)isotropic QGP in magnetic fields

The Seebeck effect and the Nernst effect, which reflect the appearance of electric fields along x-axis and along y-axis (E_{x} and E_{y}), respectively, induced by the thermal gradient along x-axis, are studied in the QGP at an external magnetic field along z-axis. We calculate the associated Seebeck coefficient (S_{xx}) and Nernst signal (N) using the relativistic Boltzmann equation under the relaxation time approximation. In an isotropic QGP, the influences of magnetic field (B) and quark chemical potential (mu _{q}) on these thermoelectric transport coefficients are investigated. In the presence (absence) of weak magnetic field, we find S_{xx} for a fixed mu _{q} is negative (positive) in sign, indicating that the dominant carriers for converting heat gradient to electric field are negatively (positively) charged quarks. The absolute value of S_{xx} decreases with increasing temperature. Unlike S_{xx}, the sign of N is independent of charge carrier type, and its thermal behavior displays a peak structure. In the presence of strong magnetic field, due to the Landau quantization of transverse motion of (anti-)quarks perpendicular to magnetic field, only the longitudinal Seebeck coefficient (S_{zz}) exists. Our results show that the value of S_{zz} at a fixed mu _{q} in the lowest Landau level (LLL) approximation always remains positive. Within the effect of high Landau levels, S_{zz} exhibits a thermal structure similar to that in the LLL approximation. As the Landau level increases further, S_{zz} decreases and even its sign changes from positive to negative. The computations of these thermoelectric transport coefficients are also extended to a medium with momentum-anisotropy induced by initial spatial expansion as well as strong magnetic field.

Photon polarization tensor in a magnetized plasma system

We investigate the photon polarization tensor at finite temperatures in the presence of a static and homogeneous external magnetic field. In our scheme, the summing of the Matsubara frequency is performed after Poisson resummation, which is easily completed and converges quickly. Moreover, the behaviors of finite Landau levels are presented explicitly. It shows a convergence while summing infinite Landau levels. Consequently, there is no necessity to truncate the Landau level in a numerical estimation. At zero temperature, the lowest Landau level (LLL) approximation is analytically satisfied for the vacuum photon polarization tensor. However, we examine that the LLL approximation is not enough for the thermal polarization tensor. The thermal tensor obtains non-trivial contributions from the finite-n Landau levels. And, photon spectra gains a large imaginary contribution in thermal medium, which is the so-called Landau damping. Finally, it is argued that the summation of Matsubara frequency is not commuted with Landau level ones, such conjecture is excluded in our calculations.

Photon self-energy in a magnetized chiral plasma from kinetic theory

We study the photon self-energy in magnetized chiral plasma by solving the response of electromagnetic field perturbations in chiral kinetic theory with Landau level states. With lowest Landau level approximation and in collisionless limit, we find solutions for three particular perturbations: parallel electric field, static perpendicular electric and magnetic field, corresponding to chiral magnetic wave, drift state and tilted state, from which we extract components of photon self-energy in different kinematics. We show no solution is possible for more general field perturbations. We argue this is an artifact of the collisionless limit: while static solution corresponding to drift state and tilted state can be found, they cannot be realized dynamically without interaction between Landau levels. We also discuss possible manifestation of side-jump effect due to both boost and rotation, with the latter due to the presence of background magnetic field.

Chiral kinetic theory from Landau level basis

We derive a chiral kinetic theory with Landau level basis, which is valid for slow-varying magnetic field with arbitrary magnitude. We apply the new chiral kinetic theory to calculate the electric conductivity transverse to the magnetic field in a magnetized QED and QCD plasma. Under the lowest Landau level approximation and relaxation time approximation, we find the transverse conductivity approaches a constant in the large magnetic field limit and is inversely proportional to the relaxation time. We also obtain a frequency-dependent transverse conductivity in response to a time-dependent electric field. We find a high frequency enhancement in this conductivity.

Two-state model for vortex nucleation in a rotating Bose-Einstein condensate

It is well-known that a rotating Bose-Einstein condensate forms vortices to carry the angular momentum. For a first vortex to nucleate at the trap center, the rotational frequency must become larger than a certain critical value. The vortex nucleation process, however, is sensitive to the trap shape. It was shown earlier that for a symmetry-breaking potential that preserves parity, at criticality the leading natural orbitals may become degenerate, giving rise to a maximally entangled quantum state, found from exact solutions for just a few bosons. Developing an effective two-state model, we here show that in the limit of large particle numbers, the many-body ground state becomes either a so-called twin-like or a Schr\"odinger cat-like state. We corroborate this finding by a direct comparison to the exact numerical solution of the problem, feasible for moderate particle numbers within the lowest Landau level approximation. We show that the nature of the quantum state at criticality can be controlled by both the quadrupolar deformation and the flatness of the confining potential.

Magnetic catalysis effect prevents vacuum superconductivity in strong magnetic fields

By comparing the two- and three-flavor Nambu--Jona-Lasinio (NJL) models, we demonstrate that the naively expected vacuum superconductivity (VSC) in constant magnetic field ${\bf B}=B\hat z$ is disfavored due to the splitting magnetic catalysis effect (MCE) to chiral condensates with different quark flavors. Based on the simple two-flavor NJL model, we illuminate, in the lowest Landau level approximation, the similar origins of $\pi^0$ and $\bar{\rho}^+_1$ (${\rho}^+$ meson with spin $S_z=1$) mass reductions with smaller $B$ and their different features at larger $B$. With the full Landau levels, the two-flavor NJL model is found to be invalid to study the magnetic field effect to $\bar{\rho}^+_1$ meson with physical vacuum mass $775~{\rm MeV}$. Then, restricted to $\rho$ meson mass below two-quark threshold in vacuum, that is $m_\rho^v<2m_q^v$, it is found that $\pi^0$ mass decreases and then increases with $B$ slowly, and $\bar{\rho}^+_1$ mass vanishing point is delayed to larger $B$ compared to the point particle result. In the more realistic three-flavor NJL model, all the quark masses split in strong magnetic field as a combinatorial result of their different current masses and electric charges. By choosing a vacuum mass closer to the physical one, $\bar{\rho}^+_1$ meson mass is found to be consistent with the LQCD results semi-quantitatively in smaller $B$ region but increase in larger $B$ region. These features are mainly outcomes of the interplay between the $S_z-B$ coupling effect and splitting MCE to the composite $u$ and $d$ quarks, which definitely disfavors VSC when the latter dominates. Furthermore, mesonic flavor mixing is modified by $B$ among the neutral pseudoscalars: $\pi^0,\eta_0$ and $\eta_8$, which is very important to suppress the mass enhancement of the effective mass eigenstates at large $B$.

Magnetic renormalons in a scalar self-interacting λϕ4 theory

We present an analysis about the influence of an external magnetic field on renormalons in a self interacting theory $\lambda \phi ^{4}$. In the weak magnetic field region, using an appropriate expansion for the Schwinger propagator's, we find new renormalons as poles on the real axis of the Borel plane, whose position do not depend on the magnetic field, but where the residues acquire in fact a magnetic dependence. In the strong magnetic limit, working in the lowest Landau level approximation (LLLA), these new poles are not longer present. We compare the magnetic scenario with previous results in the literature concerning thermal effects on renormalons in this theory.

Spectral function and dilepton rate from a strongly magnetized hot and dense medium in light of mean field models

We have calculated the electromagnetic spectral function (SF) vis-\`{a}-vis the dilepton rate (DR) by evaluating the one-loop photon polarisation tensor for a strongly magnetised hot and dense medium. The calculation is performed in the ambit of mean field models namely Nambu\textendash Jona-Lasinio (NJL) and its Polyakov loop extended version (PNJL) in the lowest Landau level approximation. These models allow for a dynamical generation of quark mass which, evidently, gets affected in the presence of a magnetised medium. We have shown that the strength of the SF gets boosted because of the presence of dynamical quarks in lieu of the current quarks. It increases as we increase the magnetic field for a given value of temperature in both NJL and PNJL models. This increment is further reflected in the DR which is enhanced as compared to the Born rate for certain values of invariant masses. We also discuss the impact of chemical potential on DR within the present scenario.

Transport coefficients of hot magnetized QCD matter beyond the lowest Landau level approximation

In this article, shear viscosity, bulk viscosity, and thermal conductivity of a QCD medium have been studied in the presence of a strong magnetic field. To model the quark–gluon plasma, an extended quasi-particle description of the hot QCD equation of state in the presence of the magnetic field has been adopted. The effects of higher Landau levels on the temperature dependence of viscous coefficients (bulk and shear viscosities) and thermal conductivity have been obtained by considering the 1rightarrow 2 processes in the presence of the strong magnetic field. An effective covariant kinetic theory has been set up in (1+1)-dimensional that includes mean field contributions in terms of quasi-particle dispersions and magnetic field to describe the Landau level dynamics of quarks. The sensitivity of these parameters to the magnitude of the magnetic field has also been explored. Both the magnetic field and mean field contributions have seen to play a significant role in obtaining the temperature behaviour of the transport coefficients of the medium.

Heavy quark complex potential in a strongly magnetized hot QGP medium

We study the effect of a strong constant magnetic field, generated in relativistic heavy ion collisions, on the heavy quark complex potential. We work in the strong magnetic field limit with the lowest Landau level approximation. We find that the screening of the real part of the potential increases with the increase in the magnetic field. Therefore, we expect less binding of the $ Q\bar{Q} $ pair in the presence of a strong magnetic field. The imaginary part of the potential increases in magnitude with the increase in the magnetic field, leading to an increase of the width of the quarkonium state with the magnetic field. All of these effects result in the early dissociation of $ Q\bar{Q} $ states in a magnetized hot quark-gluon plasma medium.