High Energy Theory Seminar

I will discuss the chiral phase transition in a magnetic field at finite temperature and chemical potential within the Sakai-Sugimoto model, a holographic top-down approach to (large-N_c) QCD. For small temperatures the addition of a magnetic field decreases the critical chemical potential for chiral symmetry restoration. This is in apparent contrast to the familiar phenomenon of magnetic catalysis, according to which the magnetic field favors the chirally broken phase. I will point out the physical mechanism behind this ``inverse magnetic catalysis'' and discuss extensions of the phase diagram by including baryonic matter.