Unitary limit of two-nucleon interactions in strong magnetic fields

Abstract

Two-nucleon systems are shown to exhibit large scattering lengths in strong magnetic fields at unphysical quark masses, and the trends toward the physical values indicate that such features may exist in nature. Lattice QCD calculations of the energies of one and two nucleons systems are performed at pion masses of m π ∼ 450 and 806 MeV in uniform, time-independent magnetic fields of strength | B | ∼ 10 19 - 10 20 G to determine the response of these hadronic systems to large magnetic fields. Fields of this strength may exist inside magnetars and in peripheral relativistic heavy ion collisions, and the unitary behavior at large scattering lengths may have important consequences for these systems.