Is Induced QCD really QCD? The preservation of asymptotic freedom by matter interactions

Abstract

The program of induced QCD requires that there exist self-interactions among the heavy matter fields (an adjoint scalar and a few fermions in the fundamental representation) which tend to spoil the asymptotic freedom of SU(N) gauge theory. We consider general interactions between such matter fields and show that, on the contrary, to two loops, they all tend to enhance asymptotic freedom in the perturbative regime. This result casts doubt on whether induced QCD is equivalent to real QCD.