Landau levels in QCD in an external magnetic field

Abstract

We will discuss the issue of Landau levels of quarks in lattice QCD in an external magnetic field. We will show that in the two-dimensional case the lowest Landau level can be identified unambiguously even if the strong interactions are turned on. Starting from this observation, we will then show how one can define a "lowest Landau level" in the four-dimensional case, and discuss how much of the observed effects of a magnetic field can be explained in terms of it. Our results can be used to test the validity of low-energy models of QCD that make use of the lowest-Landau-level approximation.