Electric charge catalysis by magnetic fields and a nontrivial holonomy

We describe a generic mechanism by which a system of Dirac fermions in thermal equilibrium acquires electric charge in an external magnetic field. To this end the fermions should have an additional quantum number, isospin, or color and should be subject to a second magnetic field, which distinguishes the isospin or color, as well as to a corresponding isospin chemical potential. The role of the latter can be also played by a nontrivial holonomy (Polyakov loop) along the Euclidean time direction. The charge is accumulated since the degeneracies of occupied lowest Landau levels for particles of positive isospin and antiparticles of negative isospin are different. We discuss two physical systems where this phenomenon can be realized. One is monolayer graphene, where the isospin is associated with two valleys in the Brillouin zone, and the strain-induced pseudomagnetic field acts differently on charge carriers in different valleys. Another is hot QCD, for which the relevant non-Abelian field configurations with both nonzero chromomagnetic field and a nontrivial Polyakov loop can be realized as calorons-topological solutions of Yang-Mills equations at finite temperature. The induced electric charge on the caloron field configuration is studied numerically. We argue that due to the fluctuations of holonomy, the external magnetic field should tend to suppress charge fluctuations in the quark-gluon plasma and estimate the importance of this effect for off-central heavy-ion collisions.