Thermodynamic Lattice Study for Preconformal Dynamics in Strongly Flavored Gauge Theory

TL;DR

This study uses lattice Monte-Carlo simulations to analyze the finite temperature chiral phase transition in SU(3) gauge theories with varying fermion flavors, identifying signals of conformality near Nf* = 9-12.

Contribution

It provides new lattice evidence for the emergence of conformality in strongly flavored gauge theories around Nf* = 9-12, complementing functional renormalization group analyses.

Findings

Critical temperature vanishes near Nf* = 9-10.

Step-scaling analysis indicates conformality around Nf* = 10-12.

Fermion screening effects increase with Nf.

Abstract

By using the lattice Monte-Carlo simulation, we investigate the finite temperature (T) chiral phase transition at color SU(3) gauge theories with various species of fundamental fermions, and discuss the signal of the (pre-)conformality at large Nf (num. of flavors.) via their comparisons. As Nf increases, we observe stronger fermion screening effects which result from a larger fermion multiplicity. We investigate a finite T step-scaling associated with a uniqueness of the critical temperature (Tc) at each Nf, then the vanishing step-scaling indicates the emergence of the conformality around Nf* = 10 - 12. Further, motivated by the functional renormalization group analyses, we examine the Nf dependence of Tc, whose vanishing behavior indicates the onset of conformal window around Nf* = 9 - 10.