Crawling technicolor

We clarify and extend further the idea we developed before that baryonic matter at high density has an emergent "pseudoconformal symmetry." It is argued that as baryonic density exceeds n ≃ n 1/2 > ∼ 2n0, a topology change mimicking the baryon-quark continuity takes place at n 1/2 . In terms of skyrmions, this corresponds to the transition from skyrmions to half-skyrmions and impacts on the equation of state of dense baryonic matter. The emergence in medium at n 1/2 of paritydoublet symmetry -which is invisible in QCD in a matter-free vacuum -plays the crucial role. The consequence of the topology change is that massive compact stars carry the "pseudoconformal sound velocity" v 2 s /c 2 ≈ 1/3 at n ∼ > n 1/2 signaling a precursor to the precocious emergence of scale symmetry as well as a local symmetry hidden in QCD in the matter-free vacuum. A highly significant prediction of this work is that the topology change density from normal matter to halfskyrmion matter, up to date inaccessible either by QCD proper or by terrestrial experiments, could possibly be pinned down within the range 2 < n 1/2 /n0 < 4, commensurate with the range expected for a continuous hadrons-to-quarks or -gluons transition.I.

Section: B Scale Symmetrymentioning

confidence: 99%

Pseudoconformal structure in dense baryonic matter

Rho

2019

“…The goal of this paper is to investigate this possibility. We stress that our investigation is based 1 Recently a third phase was proposed in Ref. [1].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the chiral limit, these theories exist in one of two phases. 1 One option is that the walking coupling eventually becomes large enough to trigger confinement and chiral symmetry breaking. The alternative is that the running of the coupling comes to a halt, indicating the existence of an infrared attractive fixed point.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Large-mass regime of the dilaton-pion low-energy effective theory

Golterman

Shamir

2018

Numerical data of the SU(3) gauge theory with N f = 8 fermions in the fundamental representation suggest the existence of a large-mass regime, where the fermion mass is not small relative to the confinement scale, but nevertheless the dilaton-pion low-energy theory is applicable thanks to the parametric proximity of the conformal window. In this regime, the leading hyperscaling relations are similar to those of a mass-deformed conformal theory, so that distinguishing infrared conformality from confinement requires the study of subleading effects.Assuming that the N f = 8 theory confines, we estimate how light the fermion mass should be to enter the small-mass regime, where the pions become much lighter than the dilatonic scalar meson.

“…We emphasize that the general results (112), (113) dictate the structure of eigenperturbations (114) and the quantisation of eigenvalues. This has two important implications.…”

Section: B Interacting Fixed Pointsmentioning

confidence: 89%

“…Most notably, the breaking of scale symmetry entails the generation of a light "dilaton" or "scalon" [111] in the spectrum. It has been speculated that these types of mechanisms may offer a scenario for the origin of the Higgs in certain extensions of the Standard Model [112][113][114]. The breaking of scale symmetry has also been studied in extensions with supersymmetry or Chern-Simons interactions [23,24,[50][51][52][53].…”

Section: Bardeen-moshe-bander Fixed Pointmentioning

confidence: 99%

Asymptotic safety of scalar field theories

Trott

2018

We study 3d O(N ) symmetric scalar field theories using Polchinski's renormalisation group. In the infinite N limit the model is solved exactly including at strong coupling. At short distances the theory is described by a line of asymptotically safe ultraviolet fixed points bounded by asymptotic freedom at weak, and the Bardeen-Moshe-Bander phenomenon at strong sextic coupling. The Wilson-Fisher fixed point arises as an isolated low-energy fixed point. Further results include the conformal window for asymptotic safety, convergence-limiting poles in the complex field plane, and the phase diagram with regions of first and second order phase transitions. We substantiate a duality between Polchinski's and Wetterich's versions of the functional renormalisation group, also showing that that eigenperturbations are identical at any fixed point. At a critical sextic coupling, the duality is worked out in detail to explain the spontaneous breaking of scale symmetry responsible for the generation of a light dilaton. Implications for asymptotic safety in other theories are indicated. Contents