hep-ph/9602385

The Zero Temperature Chiral Phase Transition in SU(N) Gauge Theories

Authors: _Thomas Appelquist_, _John Terning_, _L.C.R. Wijewardhana_
Comments: 13 pages, LaTeX, version published in PRL
Report-no: YCTP-P2-96, BUHEP-96-3, UCTP-002-96
Journal-ref: Phys.Rev.Lett. 77 (1996) 1214-1217

We investigate the zero temperature chiral phase transition in an SU(N) gauge theory as the number of fermions $N_f$ is varied. We argue that there exists a critical number of fermions $N_f^c$, above which there is no chiral symmetry breaking or confinement, and below which both chiral symmetry breaking and confinement set in. We estimate $N_f^c$ and discuss the nature of the phase transition.