Light Scalar Meson and Decay Constant in SU(3) Gauge Theory with Eight Dynamical Flavors

The SU(3) gauge theory with $N_f=8$ nearly massless Dirac fermions has long been of theoretical and phenomenological interest due to the near-conformality arising from its proximity to the conformal window. One particularly interesting feature is the emergence of a relatively light, stable flavor-singlet scalar meson $\sigma$ $(J^{PC}=0^{++})$ in contrast to the $N_f=2$ theory QCD. In this work, we study the finite-volume dependence of the $\sigma$ meson correlation function computed in lattice gauge theory and determine the $\sigma$ meson mass and decay constant extrapolated to the infinite-volume limit. We also determine the infinite volume mass and decay constant of the flavor-nonsinglet scalar meson $a_0$.Comment: 36 pages, 11 figures, supplementary data in zenodo https://dx.doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.800795

Nonperturbative investigations of SU(3) gauge theory with eight dynamical flavors

We present our lattice studies of SU(3) gauge theory with $N_f$ = 8 degenerate fermions in the fundamental representation. Using nHYP-smeared staggered fermions we study finite-temperature transitions on lattice volumes as large as $L^3 \times N_t = 48^3 \times 24$, and the zero-temperature composite spectrum on lattice volumes up to $64^3 \times 128$. The spectrum indirectly indicates spontaneous chiral symmetry breaking, but finite-temperature transitions with fixed $N_t \leq 24$ enter a strongly coupled lattice phase as the fermion mass decreases, which prevents a direct confirmation of spontaneous chiral symmetry breaking in the chiral limit. In addition to the connected spectrum we focus on the lightest flavor-singlet scalar particle. We find it to be degenerate with the pseudo-Goldstone states down to the lightest masses reached so far by non-perturbative lattice calculations. Using the same lattice approach, we study the behavior of the composite spectrum when the number of light fermions is changed from eight to four. A heavy flavor-singlet scalar in the 4-flavor theory affirms the contrast between QCD-like dynamics and the low-energy behavior of the 8-flavor theory.Comment: 31 pages, 36 figures, 8 tables. v2: update to published versio

Light Scalar Meson and Decay Constant in SU(3) Gauge Theory with Eight Dynamical Flavors

The SU(3) gauge theory with $N_f=8$ nearly massless Dirac fermions has long been of theoretical and phenomenological interest due to the near-conformality arising from its proximity to the conformal window. One particularly interesting feature is the emergence of a relatively light, stable flavor-singlet scalar meson $\sigma$ $(J^{PC}=0^{++})$ in contrast to the $N_f=2$ theory QCD. In this work, we study the finite-volume dependence of the $\sigma$ meson correlation function computed in lattice gauge theory and determine the $\sigma$ meson mass and decay constant extrapolated to the infinite-volume limit. We also determine the infinite volume mass and decay constant of the flavor-nonsinglet scalar meson $a_0$