Year: 2026
Type: preprint
Abstract: We calculate an analytic expression for the cross section, up to order $(eB)^2$, for heavy quark ($Q$) production of mass $m_Q$ through the gluon ($g$) fusion process $g+g \to Q+\bar{Q}$ in the presence of a constant weak external magnetic field $B$ with strength $eB \ll m_Q^2$. This is done using the weak-field expansion of the fermion propagator, calculated with Schwinger's proper-time formalism. Owing to the hierarchy of scales ($m_Q^2 \gg eB$), we neglect the effects of the magnetic field on the quark and antiquark spinors in the external lines. Since the magnetic field breaks rotational invariance, the cross section becomes anisotropic and depends on the orientation angle $θ$ between the magnetic field and the incoming gluons in the center of mass frame. The lowest-order magnetic correction to the vacuum cross section scales as $(eB)^2$ and has $\cos 2θ$ and $\cos 4θ$ dependence, reflecting the breaking of rotational symmetry by the magnetic field. The cross section is maximized when the gluons propagate along the field direction ($θ= 0, π$) and minimized in the perpendicular configuration ($θ= π/2$). The resulting asymmetry peaks near the production threshold and falls with increasing center of mass energy, scaling as $(eB)^2/m_Q^4$ with the quark mass. These results provide direct, calculable signatures of the initial-stage magnetic field in relativistic heavy-ion collisions, which can in principle be imprinted on heavy-flavour observables measured in the final state.
Source: arXiv (Cornell University)
Language: English
Subfield: Nuclear and High Energy Physics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7221758084