A First-Quantized Model for Unparticles and Gauge Theories around Conformal Window

Abstract

We first quantize an action proposed by Casalbuoni and Gomis in 2014 that describes two massless relativistic scalar particles interacting via a conformally invariant potential. The spectrum is a continuum of massive states that may be interpreted as unparticles. We then obtain in a similar way the mass operator for a deformed action in which two terms are introduced that break the conformal symmetry: a mass term and an extra position-dependent coupling constant. A simple Ansatz for the latter leads to a mass operator with linear confinement in terms of an effective string tension σ. The quantized model is confining when σ≠0 and its mass spectrum shows Regge trajectories. We propose a tensionless limit in which highly excited confined states reduce to (gapped) unparticles. Moreover, the low-lying confined bound states become massless in the latter limit as a sign of conformal symmetry restoration and the ratio between their masses and σ stays constant. The originality of our approach is that it applies to both confining and conformal phases via an effective interacting model.