We analyze the existence of a dilaton in gauge theories with approximate
infrared conformal symmetry. To the extent that these theories are governed in
the infrared by an approximate fixed point (walking), the explicit breaking of
the conformal symmetry at these scales is vanishingly small. If confinement and
spontaneous chiral-symmetry breaking set in at some infrared scale, the
resultant breaking of the approximate conformal symmetry can lead to the
existence of a dilaton with mass parametrically small compared to the
confinement scale, and potentially observable at the LHC.Comment: 5 pages, references added, final version in PR