# Conformal perturbation theory confronts lattice results in the vicinity of a critical point

## TL;DR

This paper evaluates the effectiveness of conformal perturbation theory by comparing its predictions with lattice results near the critical point of SU(2) Yang-Mills theory, demonstrating broad quantitative accuracy.

## Contribution

It provides the first detailed comparison between conformal perturbation theory and lattice results near a non-Abelian gauge theory's critical point, supporting its predictive power.

## Key findings

- Conformal perturbation theory matches lattice results within a broad temperature range.
- The approach accurately describes the critical behavior of SU(2) Yang-Mills theory.
- Implications for understanding the QCD critical point are discussed.

## Abstract

We study the accuracy and predictive power of conformal perturbation theory by a comparison with lattice results in the neighborhood of the finite-temperature deconfinement transition of SU(2) Yang-Mills theory, assuming that the infrared properties of this non-Abelian gauge theory near criticality can be described by the Ising model. The results of this comparison show that conformal perturbation theory yields quantitatively accurate predictions in a broad temperature range. We discuss the implications of these findings for the description of the critical point (belonging to the same universality class) of another strongly coupled, non-supersymmetric non-Abelian gauge theory: the critical end-point in the phase diagram of QCD at finite temperature and finite quark chemical potential.