Phase Structure of Lattice QCD for General Number of Flavors

Abstract

We investigate the phase structure of lattice QCD for general number of flavors $N_F$. Based on numerical results combined with the result of the perturbation theory we propose the following picture: When $N_F \ge 17$, there is only a trivial fixed point and therefore the theory in the continuum limit is trivial. On the other hand, when $16 \ge N_F \ge 7$, there is a non-trivial fixed point and therefore the theory is non-trivial with anomalous dimensions, however, without quark confinement. Theories which satisfy both quark confinement and spontaneous chiral symmetry breaking in the continuum limit exist only for $N_F \le 6$.