Banks-Zaks fixed point
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In quantum chromodynamics (and also N = 1 superquantum chromodynamics), for certain values of
- Nc,
the number of colors, and
- Nf,
the number of flavors, and assuming chiral symmetry (meaning that the quarks are massless), there is an infrared fixed point corresponding to a nontrivial value of the coupling constant, (i.e., neither zero indicating triviality nor infinity indicating confinement).
This means the theory approaches a conformal field theory, the Banks-Zaks fixed point. This is also called the conformal window.
This is an exact conformal field theory: it has no mass gap and there are bound particles whose mass is continuous and can take on any positive value.