Phase transitions for SU(N) gauge theories with arbitrary number of flavors

TL;DR

This paper investigates the phase diagram of SU(N) gauge theories, revealing a unique region where chiral symmetry is broken without confinement, and proposing a potential new phase with both strong confinement and chiral symmetry breaking.

Contribution

It introduces the phase structure of SU(N) gauge theories across different N and Nf, highlighting a novel phase with unconfined chiral symmetry breaking and suggesting a new strongly confined phase.

Findings

Identification of a region with chiral symmetry breaking but no confinement

Proposal of a new phase with strong confinement and chiral symmetry breaking

Insights into the phase diagram of SU(N) gauge theories

Abstract

We study the phase diagram of an $SU(N)$ gauge theory in terms of the number of colors $N$ and flavors $N_f$ with emphasis on the confinement and chiral symmetry breaking phases. We argue that as opposed to SUSY QCD there is a small region in the $(N,N_f)$ plane where the theory has the chiral symmetry broken but it is unconfined. The possibility of a new phase with strong confinement and chiral symmetry breaking is suggested.