Infrared Unification: Quarks and Electrons Attract Equal Force

[arivero]

If the strong coupling goes to zero in the infrared... is there some scale at which it has the same value that the electromagnetic coupling?

At this energy, a quark should attract another quark with about the same force it should attact an electron. Curious.

 

[Physics Monkey]

Hi arivero,

You've accidentally got it backwards, the coupling is strong in the infrared and weak in the ultraviolet. The strong interaction has an ultraviolet fixed point corresponding to asymptotic freedom. The strong interaction does have some very interesting physics associated with its RG structure in the infrared. For example, it has been suggested that by tuning the quark masses just a tad, a RG limit cycle can be induced in the three nucleon problem. The proximity of physical QCD to this limit cycle is evident in the physics of the three nucleon problem, and may have important consequences in lattice QCD.

 

[arivero]

UUUUPS! I should delete the whole thread to wipe away any proof of my mistake. I was all the week thinking at the electroweak/technicolor scale and then for consistence my mind reversed the asymptotic freedom / infrared slavery concepts.