Boundary Effects in the Magnetic Catalysis of Chiral Symmetry Breaking

E. J. Ferrer, V. P. Gusynin, V. de la Incera

Published 1999-01-29, updated 1999-02-26Version 3

The catalysis of chiral symmetry breaking by an applied constant magnetic field and in the presence of boundaries along third axis is investigated in the four-dimensional Nambu-Jona-Lasinio model. It is shown that in case of periodic boundary conditions for fermions the magnetic field breaks the chiral symmetry, generating a dynamical mass even at the weakest attractive interaction between fermions. For antiperiodic boundary conditions the effect of the finite third dimension is to counteract the chiral symmetry breaking.