Catalysis of Dynamical Flavor Symmetry Breaking by a Magnetic Field in 2 + 1 Dimensions

It is shown that in 2 + 1 dimensions, a constant magnetic field is a strong catalyst of dynamical flavor symmetry breaking, leading to generating a fermion dynamical mass even at the weakest attractive interaction between fermions. The effect is illustrated in the Nambu-Jona-Lasinio model in a magnetic field. The low-energy effective action in this model is derived, and the thermodynamic properties of the model are established.