QCD with background electromagnetic fields on the lattice: a review

Abstract: This review provides a comprehensive summary of results on the physics of strongly interacting matter in the presence of background electromagnetic fields, obtained via numerical lattice simulations of the underlying theory, Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD). Lattice QCD has guided our understanding of magnetized quarks and gluons via landmark results on the phase diagram, the equation of state, the confinemenent mechanism, anomalous transport phenomena as well as many more fascinating effects. Some of the lattice results lead to completely new paradigms in the description of hot magnetized quark matter and provided useful insights to a broad high-energy particle physics community. Since the first lattice QCD simulations with background fields, this field has been established as an independent research direction. We present the current status and recent developments of this field, together with an outlook including open questions to be answered in the near future.