We study QCD under the influence of background magnetic fields and isospin chemical potentials using lattice simulations. This setup exhibits a sign problem which is circumvented using a Taylor expansion in the magnetic field. The ground state of the system in the pion condensation phase is found to exhibit a pronounced diamagnetic response. We elaborate on how this diamagnetism may contribute to the pressure balance in the inner core of strongly magnetized neutron stars. In addition we show that the onset of pion condensation shifts to larger chemical potentials due to the enhancement of the charged pion mass for growing magnetic fields. Finally, we summarize the magnetic nature of QCD matter on the temperature-isospin chemical potential phase diagram.

• Received 14 July 2014

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.90.094501