Fixed point structure of Pade-summation approximations to the QCD beta-function
Abstract
Pad\'e-improvement of four-loop beta-functions in massive phi^4 scalar field theory is shown to predict the known five-loop contribution with astonishing (0.2%) accuracy, supporting the applicability of Pade-summations for approximating all-orders MS-bar QCD beta-functions, as suggested by Ellis, Karliner, and Samuel. Surprisingly, the most general set of [2|2] approximants consistent with known two-, three-, and four-loop contributions to the QCD beta-function with up to six flavours fail to exhibit any zeros that could be interpreted as positive infrared fixed points, regardless of the unknown five-loop term. When they occur, positive zeros of such [2|2] approximants are preceded by singularities, leading to a double-valued beta-function that is decoupled entirely from the infrared region, similar to the beta-function of SUSY gluodynamics.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.hep-ph/9809471,
title = {Fixed point structure of Pade-summation approximations to the QCD beta-function},
author = {V. Elias and F. Chishtie and T. G. Steele},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:hep-ph/9809471},
year = {2007}
}
Comments
4 pages, 3 figures, latex (requires ltwol.sty and psfig.sty), to appear in proceedings of ICHEP '98. Additional references included