Thermal Field Theory in the Presence of a Background Magnetic Field and its Application to QCD

Abstract

This review has explored the fundamental principles of thermal field theory in the context of a background magnetic field, highlighting its theoretical framework and some of its applications to the thermo-magnetic QCD plasma generated in heavy-ion collisions. Our discussion has been limited to equilibrium systems for clarity and conciseness. We analysed bulk thermodynamic characteristics, including the phase diagram as well as real-time observables, shedding light on the behaviour and dynamics of the thermo-magnetic QCD medium relevant to heavy-ion physics.

Figures (73)

• Figure 1.1: Left panel: the schematic illustration of a non-central heavy-ion collision Right panel: the cross-sectional view of the non-central HIC along the beam axis ($y$-axis) depicts the overlapping region of the two colliding nuclei. The figure on the right panel is adopted from Ref. Bandyopadhyay:2017wip.
• Figure 2.1: The variation of the magnitude of the magnetic field (${\mathbf{B}}=eB\bm{\hat{z}}$) with proper time $\tau$ at the origin ${\bm r}=0$ in collisions of two gold ions at beam energies: Left panel: at $\sqrt{S_{NN}}=62$ GeV and Right panel: at $\sqrt{S_{NN}}=200$ GeV. These figures are taken from Refs. Tuchin:2013ieKharzeev:2007jp.
• Figure 2.2: The variation of magnetic field at $y = 0$ in vacuum (blue) as given in \ref{['intro11']}, in static conducting medium as given in \ref{['intro12']} at $\sigma = 5.8$ MeV (red) and at $\sigma = 16$ MeV (brown), and in the expanding medium (green) as given in \ref{['intro17']}. This figure is taken from Ref. Tuchin:2013ie.
• Figure 3.1: Thresholds corresponding to a few Landau Levels are displayed as a function of the external magnetic field. The regime of the lowest Landau level at strong magnetic field approximation is shown by the shaded area.
• Figure 4.2: Diagramatic representation of the Dyson-Schwinger equation for one-loop effective fermion propagator.