Finite temperature large N gauge theory with quarks in an external magnetic field

Using a ten dimensional dual string background, we study aspects of the physics of finite temperature large N four dimensional SU(N) gauge theory, focusing on the dynamics of fundamental quarks in the presence of a background magnetic field. At vanishing temperature and magnetic field, the theory has = 2 supersymmetry, and the quarks are in hypermultiplet representations. In a previous study, similar techniques were used to show that the quark dynamics exhibit spontaneous chiral symmetry breaking. In the present work we begin by establishing the non-trivial phase structure that results from finite temperature. We observe, for example, that above the critical value of the field that generates a chiral condensate spontaneously, the meson melting transition disappears, leaving only a discrete spectrum of mesons at any temperature. We also compute several thermodynamic properties of the plasma.