Is SU(3) gauge theory with 13 massless flavors conformal?

Abstract

We use lattice simulations to study SU(3) gauge theory with 13 massless fermions in the fundamental representation. We present evidence that the theory is conformal with a non-zero infrared fixed point in the gauge coupling. We use a newly-developed technique to calculate the mass anomalous dimension at the fixed point via step-scaling of the mode number, allowing us to take the continuum limit and compare to perturbative predictions. We comment on the relevance of these findings to the extended search for the conformal window in the fundamental representation and in particular 12 massless flavors.