Chiral condensates and screening masses of neutral pseudoscalar mesons in thermomagnetic QCD medium

We point out that chiral condensates at nonzero temperature and magnetic fields are in strict connection to the space-time integral of corresponding two-point neutral meson correlation functions in the pseudoscalar channel via the Ward-Takahashi identity. Screening masses of neutral pseudoscalar mesons, which are defined as the exponential decay of the corresponding spatial correlation functions in the long distance, thus are intrinsically connected to (inverse) magnetic catalysis of chiral condensates. To study this we performed lattice simulations of (2 + 1)-flavor QCD on 32(3) x N-t lattices with pion mass M-pi similar or equal to 220 MeV in a fixed scale approach having temperature T is an element of [17; 281] MeV and magnetic field strength eB is an element of [0, 2.5] GeV2. We find that screening lengths, i.e., inverses of screening masses of pi(0), K-0 and eta(0)(s (s) over bar), turn out to have the similar complex eB and T dependences of the corresponding chiral condensates. Although the transition temperature is found to always decrease as eB grows, we show that the suppression due to magnetic fields becomes less significant for hadron screening length and chiral condensates with heavier quarks involved, and ceases to occur for eta(0)(s (s) over bar) and strange quark chiral condensate. The complex eB and T dependences of both screening masses and chiral condensates, reflecting the crossover nature of the QCD transition, are attributed to the competition between sea and valence quark effects. These findings could be useful to guide low-energy models and effective theories of QCD.

Automated summary

The screening lengths of neutral pseudoscalar mesons are intrinsically connected to (inverse) magnetic catalysis of chiral condensates. The complex dependences of screening masses and chiral condensates on magnetic field and temperature reflect the crossover nature of the QCD transition. These findings are important for guiding low-energy models and effective theories of QCD.