Magnetic Catalysis of Chiral Symmetry Breaking. A Holographic Prospective

We review a recent investigation of the effect of magnetic catalysis of mass generation in holographic Yang-Mills theories. We aim at a self-contained and pedagogical form of the review. We provide a brief field theory background and review the basics of holographic flavordynamics. The main part of the review investigates the influence of external magnetic field on holographic gauge theories dual to the D3/D5-- and D3/D7-- brane intersections. Among the observed phenomena are the spontaneous breaking of a global internal symmetry, Zeeman splitting of the energy levels and the existence of pseudo Goldstone modes. An analytic derivation of the Gell-Mann--Oaks--Renner relation for the D3/D7 set up is reviewed. In the D3/D5 case the pseudo Goldstone modes satisfy non-relativistic dispersion relation. The studies reviewed confirm the universal nature of the magnetic catalysis of mass generation.