Targeting the Conformal Window: Scalars on the Lattice

TL;DR

This paper investigates the transition from conformal to confining phases in a lattice gauge theory with varying flavor content, aiming to understand the emergence of a light Higgs-like scalar in strongly interacting models.

Contribution

It introduces a novel lattice approach using mixed light and heavy flavors to study the conformal window and reports initial results on the scalar state in this system.

Findings

Initial determination of the iso-singlet 0++ state.

Demonstrates the interpolation between conformal and confining regimes.

Provides a new methodology for exploring conformal symmetry breaking.

Abstract

The light Higgs boson of the Standard Model could arise as the consequence of the weakly broken conformal symmetry in a strongly interacting gauge theory. Here we present a novel idea to study the transition from conformal to confining behavior using an SU(3) gauge theory with four light and eight heavy flavors. This system interpolates between the 12-flavor conformal and the 4 flavor chirally broken theory as the mass of the heavy flavors are varied. We show first results on our determination of the iso-singlet 0++ state.