  Magnetic catalysis describes the enhancement of symmetry breaking quantum
fluctuations in chirally symmetric quantum field theories by the coupling of
fermionic degrees of freedom to a magnetic background configuration. We use the
functional renormalization group to investigate this phenomenon for interacting
Dirac fermions propagating in (2+1)-dimensional spacetime, described by the
Gross-Neveu model. We identify pointlike operators up to quartic fermionic
terms that can be generated in the renormalization group flow by the presence
of an external magnetic field. We employ the beta function for the fermionic
coupling to quantitatively analyze the field dependence of the induced spectral
gap. Within our pointlike truncation, the renormalization group flow provides a
simple picture for magnetic catalysis.
