English

On \epsilon-conjecture in a-theorem

High Energy Physics - Theory 2012-02-07 v2

Abstract

The derivation of the a-theorem recently proposed by Komargodski and Schwimmer relies on the \epsilon-conjecture that demands decoupling of dilaton from the rest of the infrared theory. We point out that the decoupling, if true, provides a strong evidence for the equivalence between scale invariance and conformal invariance in four dimension. Thus, a complete proof of the a-theorem along the line of their argument in the most generic scenario would establish the equivalence between scale invariance and conformal invariance, which is another long-standing conjecture in four-dimensional quantum field theories.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1110.2586,
  title  = {On \epsilon-conjecture in a-theorem},
  author = {Yu Nakayama},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1110.2586},
  year   = {2012}
}

Comments

5 pages, v2: clarifications added to emphasize that we have no intention of invalidating the derivation by Komargodski and Schwimmer when the renormalization group flow is between two conformal field theories

R2 v1 2026-06-21T19:19:00.848Z