We compute anomalous dimensions of quartic operators which are singlets under the $\mathrm{U}(N_f)$ global symmetry in Yang-Mills theories with Chern-Simons level $k$ in three dimensions coupled to $N_f$ Dirac fermions. In order to have analytic control, we consider the regime $N_f\gg N_c\gg 1$, where the problem is reduced to the study of a flavor-adjoint and a flavor-singlet bilinears whose square give the quartic operators of interest. We provide evidence that these operators hit marginality, signaling instabilities which, for $\frac{2k}{N_f}<1$ suggest the spontaneous breaking of the global symmetry, and no symmetry breaking otherwise. For $k=N_f/2-1$ (the value corresponding to the domain walls of 4d QCD at $θ=π$), the critical value $N_f^*$ is tantalizingly close to the lower end of the conformal window of QCD$_4$, suggesting a connection between conformal and global symmetry breaking in the 4d theory and in its domain walls. We also study, at $k=0$, other quartic operators containing a singlet when branched under $\mathrm{U}\left(\frac{N_f}{2}\right)\times \mathrm{U}\left(\frac{N_f}{2}\right)$, finding that they hit marginality precisely at the same point as their flavor-neutral cousins. Using the same technology we study bosonic CS-QCD$_3$, finding no hint of symmetry breaking where our analysis is applicable.
We compute the two-loop massless QCD corrections to the four-point amplitude $g+g \rightarrow H+H$ resulting from effective operator insertions that describe the interaction of a Higgs boson with gluons in the infinite top quark mass limit. This amplitude is an essential ingredient to the third-order QCD corrections to Higgs boson pair production. We have implemented our results in a numerical code that can be used for further phenomenological studies.
We solve the integration-by-parts (IBP) identities needed for the computation of any planar two-loop five-point massless amplitude in QCD. We also derive some new results for the most complicated non-planar topology with irreducible numerators of power as high as six. We do this by applying a new strategy for solving the IBP identities which scales better for problems with a large number of scales and/or master integrals. Our results are a proof of principle that the remaining non-planar contributions for all two-loop five-point massless QCD amplitudes can be computed in analytic form.
We calculate the unpolarized and polarized two--loop massless off--shell operator matrix elements in QCD to $O(\varepsilon)$ in the dimensional parameter in an automated way. Here we use the method of arbitrary high Mellin moments and difference ring theory, based on integration-by-parts relations. This method also constitutes one way to compute the QCD anomalous dimensions. The presented higher order contributions to these operator matrix elements occur as building blocks in the corresponding higher order calculations up to four--loop order. All contributing quantities can be expressed in ter…
The infamous strong CP problem in particle physics can in principle be solved by a massless up quark. In particular, it was hypothesized that topological effects could substantially contribute to the observed nonzero up-quark mass without reintroducing CP violation. Alternatively to previous work using fits to chiral perturbation theory, in this Letter, we bound the strength of the topological mass contribution with direct lattice QCD simulations, by computing the dependence of the pion mass on the dynamical strange-quark mass. We find that the size of the topological mass contribution is inco…
We study the phase diagram of two-flavor massless two-color QCD (QC$_2$D) under the presence of quark chemical potentials and imaginary isospin chemical potentials. At the special point of the imaginary isospin chemical potential, called the isospin Roberge--Weiss (RW) point, two-flavor QC$_2$D enjoys the $\mathbb{Z}_2$ center symmetry that acts on both quark flavors and the Polyakov loop. We find a $\mathbb{Z}_2$ 't Hooft anomaly of this system, which involves the $\mathbb{Z}_2$ center symmetry, the baryon-number symmetry, and the isospin chiral symmetry. Anomaly matching, therefore, constrai…
We review recent progress on operator mixing in the light of the theory of canonical forms for linear systems of differential equations and, in particular, of the Poincaré-Dulac theorem. We show that the matrix $A(g) = -\frac{γ(g)}{β(g)} =\frac{γ_0}{β_0}\frac{1}{g} + \cdots $ determines which different cases of operator mixing can occur, and we review their classification. We derive a sufficient condition for $A(g)$ to be set in the one-loop exact form $A(g) = \frac{γ_0}{β_0}\frac{1}{g}$. Finally, we discuss the consequences of the unitarity requirement in massless QCD-like theories, and we de…
We investigate free non-local massless and massive scalar field on deSitter (dS) space-time. We compute the propagator for the non-local scalar field for the corresponding theories on flat and deSitter space-times. It is seen that for the non-local theory, the massless limit of massive propagator is smooth for both flat and deSitter. Moreover, this limit matches exactly with the massless propagator of the non-local scalar field for both flat and deSitter space-time. The propagator is seen to respect dS invariance. Furthermore, investigations of the non-local Green's function on deSitter for la…
We consider $1+1$ dimensional Yang-Mills theory with gauge group $G$ coupled to a massive Majorana fermion field in an adjoint representation and a number of massless Dirac or Majorana fermions transforming in arbitrary representations of the gauge group $G$. It is shown that the spectrum of the massive sector of this theory becomes supersymmetric at particular mass of adjoint fermion. This mass is independent of the detailed structure of the massless sector of the model and depends only on the gauge group $G$ and integer $k$ measuring the total anomaly. The massless sector of the model is sho…
We study QCD with massless quarks on $\mathbb{R}^3\times S^1$ under symmetry-twisted boundary conditions with small compactification radius, i.e. at high temperatures. Under suitable boundary conditions, the theory acquires a part of the center symmetry and it is spontaneously broken at high temperatures. We show that these vacua at high temperatures can be regarded as different symmetry-protected topological orders, and the domain walls between them support nontrivial massless gauge theories as a consequence of anomaly-inflow mechanism. At sufficiently high temperatures, we can perform the se…
From statistical mechanics the trace of the thermal average of any energy-momentum tensor is $\langle T^μ_{\;\;μ}\rangle =T\partial P/\partial T-4P$. The renormalization group formula $\langle T^μ_{\;\;μ}\rangle =β(g_{M})\partial P/\partial g_{M}$ for QCD with massless fermions requires the pressure to have the structure \begin{equation} P=T^{4}\sum_{n=0}^{\infty} ϕ_{n}(g_{M})\big[\ln\big({M\over 4πT}\big)\big]^{n},\end{equation} where the factor $4π$ is for later convenience. The functions $ϕ_{n}(g_{M})$ for $n\ge 1$ may be calculated from $ϕ_{0}(g_{M})$ using the recursion relation $n\,ϕ_{n}…
We discuss an exotic phase that adjoint QCD possibly exhibits in the deep infrared (IR). It is a confining phase, with a light spectrum consisting of massless composite fermions. The discrete chiral symmetry is broken, with unbroken continuous chiral symmetry. We argue that it may give a description of the IR of adjoint QCD with three massless Weyl flavors and that it passes all consistency checks known to us.
Recently, a geometric approach to operator mixing in massless QCD-like theories -- that involves canonical forms based on the Poincare'-Dulac theorem for the linear system that defines the renormalized mixing matrix in the coordinate representation $Z(x,μ)$ -- has been advocated in arXiv:2103.15527 . As a consequence, a classification of operator mixing in four cases -- depending on the canonical forms of $- \frac{γ(g)}{β(g)}$, with $γ(g)=γ_0 g^2+\cdots$ the matrix of the anomalous dimensions and $β(g)=-β_0 g^3 + \cdots$ the beta function -- has been proposed: (I) nonresonant $\frac{γ_0}{β_0}$…
We come back to the issue of bosonization of fermions in two spacetime dimension and give a new costruction in the steady state case where left and right moving particles can coexist at two different temperatures. A crucial role in our construction is played by translation invariant infrared states and the corresponding field operators which are naturally linked to the infrared behaviour of the correlation functions. We present two applications: a simple new derivation in the free relativistic case of a formula by Bernard and Doyon and a full operator solution of the massless Thirring model in…
We derive the necessary and sufficient conditions for a 2d QCD theory of massless gluons and left and right chiral quarks in arbitrary representations of a gauge group G to develop a mass gap. These results are obtained from spectral properties of the lightcone and temporal QCD Hamiltonians. The conditions can be explicitly solved, and we provide the complete list of all 2d QCD theories that have a quantum mechanical gap in the spectrum, while any other theory not in the list is gapless. The list of gapped theories includes QCD models with quarks in vector-like as well as chiral representation…
