QCD Dual

We uncover a novel solution of the 't Hooft anomaly matching conditions for QCD. Interestingly in the perturbative regime the new gauge theory, if interpreted as a possible QCD dual, predicts the critical number of flavors above which QCD in the nonperturbative regime, develops an infrared stable fixed point. Remarkably this value is identical to the maximum bound predicted in the nonpertubative regime via the all-orders conjectured beta function for nonsupersymmetric gauge theories.Comment: RevTeX, 13 pages. Added discussion on operator matching and flavor decoupling. Version to match the published on

Aspects of the Quantum Chromo Dynamics Phase Diagram

I briefly review some aspects of the Quantum Chromo Dynamics phase diagram at non zero temperature and quark chemical potential. I then suggest new possible phases which can appear in strongly interacting theories at non zero chemical potential. Finally I describe the phase diagram as function of the number of flavors and colors at zero quark chemical potential and zero temperature.Comment: 16 pp. 6 eps-figs. Invited review talk for the GISELDA Meeting held in Frascati, 14-18 January 200

The Standard Model is Natural as Magnetic Gauge Theory

We suggest that the Standard Model can be viewed as the magnetic dual of a gauge theory featuring only fermionic matter content. We show this by first introducing a Pati-Salam like extension of the Standard Model and then relating it to a possible dual electric theory featuring only fermionic matter. The absence of scalars in the electric theory indicates that the associated magnetic theory is free from quadratic divergences. Our novel solution to the Standard Model hierarchy problem leads also to a new insight on the mystery of the observed number of fundamental fermion generations by naturally explaining why it has to be at least three.Comment: RevTeX, 5 pages. Version to match the published one. Added several paragraphs suggesting how nonsupersymmetric gauge-gauge duality can work. This work opens the doors to a new way to address the hierarchy problem of the Standard Mode

Magnetic S-parameter

We propose a direct test of the existence of gauge duals for nonsupersymmetric asymptotically free gauge theories developing an infrared fixed point by computing the S-parameter in the electric and dual magnetic description. In particular we show that at the lower bound of the conformal window the magnetic S-parameter, i.e. the one determined via the dual magnetic gauge theory, assumes a simple expression in terms of the elementary magnetic degrees of freedom. The results further support our recent conjecture of the existence of a universal lower bound on the S parameter and indicates that it is an ideal operator for counting the active physical degrees of freedom within the conformal window. Our results can be directly used to unveil possible four dimensional gauge duals and constitute the first explicit computation of a nonperturbative quantity, in the electric variables, via nonsupersymmetric gauge duality.Comment: RevTeX 4, 4 pages, two columns. Version to match the published version in Phys. Rev. Let

Large N Scalars: From Glueballs to Dynamical Higgs Models

We construct effective Lagrangians, and corresponding counting schemes, valid to describe the dynamics of the lowest lying large N stable massive composite state emerging in strongly coupled theories. The large N counting rules can now be employed when computing quantum corrections via an effective Lagrangian description. The framework allows for systematic investigations of composite dynamics of non-Goldstone nature. Relevant examples are the lightest glueball states emerging in any Yang-Mills theory. We further apply the effective approach and associated counting scheme to composite models at the electroweak scale. To illustrate the formalism we consider the possibility that the Higgs emerges as: the lightest glueball of a new composite theory; the large N scalar meson in models of dynamical electroweak symmetry breaking; the large N pseudodilaton useful also for models of near-conformal dynamics. For each of these realisations we determine the leading N corrections to the electroweak precision parameters. The results nicely elucidate the underlying large N dynamics and can be used to confront first principle lattice results featuring composite scalars with a systematic effective approach.Comment: 15 pages ReVTeX, 3 figure

Chiral Phase Transition for SU(N) Gauge Theories

We describe the chiral phase transition for vector-like SU(N) gauge theories as a function of the number of quark flavors Nf by making use of an anomaly-induced effective potential. The potential depends explicitly on the full beta-function and the anomalous dimension \gamma of the quark mass operator. By using this potential we argue that chiral symmetry is restored for \gamma <1. A perturbative computation of \gamma then leads to an estimate of the critical value Nf^c for the transition.Comment: 7 pages, LaTeX AIP style. Conf. Proc. "New Directions in Quantum Chromodynamics

Anomaly Matching and Low Energy Theories at High Matter Density

I provide new arguments supporting the validity of the t'Hooft anomaly conditions at non zero quark chemical potential. These constraints strengthen the quark-hadron continuity scenario. Finally I review the 2SC effective Lagrangian for color superconductivity

Jumping Dynamics

We propose an alternative paradigm to the conjectured Miransky scaling potentially underlying the physics describing the transition from the conformally broken to the conformally restored phase when tuning certain parameters such as the number of flavors in gauge theories. According to the new paradigm the physical scale and henceforth also the massive spectrum of the theory jump at the lower boundary of the conformal window. In particular we propose that a theory can suddenly jump from a Quantum Chromodynamics type spectrum, at the lower boundary of the conformal window, to a conformal one without particle interpretation. The jumping scenario, therefore, does not support a near-conformal dynamics of walking type. We will also discuss the impact of jumping dynamics on the construction of models of dynamical electroweak symmetry breaking.Comment: 4 pages. 6 Figure