Magnetic susceptibility and equation of state of N_f = 2+1 QCD with physical quark masses

We determine the free energy of strongly interacting matter as a function of an applied constant and uniform magnetic field. We consider N_f = 2+1 QCD with physical quark masses, discretized on a lattice by stout improved staggered fermions and a tree level improved Symanzik pure gauge action, and explore three different lattice spacings. For magnetic fields of the order of those produced in non-central heavy ion collisions (eB ~ 0.1 GeV^2) strongly interacting matter behaves like a medium with a linear response, and is paramagnetic both above and below the deconfinement transition, with a susceptibility which steeply rises in the deconfined phase. We compute the equation of state, showing that the relative increase in the pressure due to the magnetic field gets larger around the transition, and of the order of 10 % for eB ~ 0.1 GeV^2.