Quark Saturation in Magnetized Pure Neutron Matter

Abstract

We study how magnetic fields affect the onset of quark saturation, which limits the domain of applicability of a purely baryonic description. We consider matter composed of electrically neutral $ddu$ baryons, including neutron- and $\Delta^0$-like states. Using a simple constituent-quark model, we compute the baryon wave functions and spectra in magnetic fields. The magnetic field polarizes the spin-flavor structure, compresses the internal wave function in the transverse direction, and strongly suppresses the transverse kinetic energy. From the baryon wave functions, we construct the one-body reduced density matrix and derive the corresponding single-quark distributions in longitudinal momentum and Landau-level space. We then use these distributions to evaluate quark occupation probabilities in an ideal baryon gas and determine the onset of quark saturation. At finite magnetic field in the $+z$-direction, the $d_\downarrow$ quark in the lowest Landau level reaches saturation first. The resulting saturation density depends nonmonotonically on the magnetic-field strength: it decreases at weak fields and increases at stronger fields. This behavior reflects the competition between spin-flavor polarization, which promotes saturation, and transverse spatial squeezing, which delays saturation by broadening of the quark transverse momentum distribution.