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From what I understand, the color confinement scale $\Lambda_{QCD}$ is a dimensional parameter of "pure QCD" (as stated for example here), which is entirely independent of the Higgs mechanism and its associated mass scale.

On the other hand, $\Lambda_{QCD} = \mathcal{O}(100MeV)$ happens to be exactly the same as the "typical" mass of particles in the SM (including leptons, which have masses roughly in the range $1-1000 MeV$, and have nothing to do with QCD).

Is this a coincidence? or does it hint to some kind of unified theory at a higher energy scale ?

UPDATE:

There is a very similar question here : why should the mass of leptons to be near of proton and qcd chiral scales. The answer given there is anthropic - we need the ratio of proton/electron masses to be what it is for chemistry as we know it to be possible. The question is - are anthropic arguments the only explanation we can give, or are there any known mechanisms by which this can arise from a more fundamental theory (e.g. string theory) ?

(also, to be perfectly clear, $\Lambda_{QCD}$ is obviously not exactly at the electroweak scale, it is just close enough in the grander scheme of things)

Steerpike
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3 Answers3

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Contrary to your claim, $\Lambda_{\rm QCD} \sim 300 \, {\rm MeV}$ is not at the electroweak scale $v=(G_F \sqrt{2})^{-1/2}\simeq 246 \, {\rm GeV}$, instead these energy scales are differing by roughly a factor $10^3$.

The order of magnitude $\sim 1 \, \rm GeV$ of the masses of hadrons like $\rho$, $p$ or $n$ (without heavy quark content) is explained by $\Lambda_{\rm QCD}$, whereas the contributions from the quark masses $m_{u,d}$ to $m_\rho$, $m_p$, $m_n$ are only tiny effects of a few percent. The masses of the pseudoscalar mesons $\pi^\pm, \pi^0$, being Goldstone bosons of spontaneous chiral symmetry breaking in QCD, are even further suppressed, with squared masses $M_\pi^2 =B(m_u+m_d)$, where the factor of proportionality $B$ is related to the quark condensate $\langle 0 |\bar{q} q |0\rangle$.

On the other hand, the scale of electroweak symmetry breaking $v$ determines the masses of the electroweak bosons $W^\pm, \, Z^0$ via $$ M_W^2=\frac{g^2 v^2}{4}\simeq 80 \, {\rm GeV}, \qquad M_Z^2=\frac{(g^2+g^{\prime \, 2})v^2}{4}\simeq 91 \, \rm GeV, $$ where $g, \, g^\prime$ are the coupling constants of the electroweak gauge group $\rm SU(2) \times U(1)$. At the same time, the masses $m_{ f}$ of the spin $1/2$ fermions $ f= e, \mu,\tau, u, d, c,s, t,b$ are related to the electroweak scale by Yukawa couplings $y_{ f}$ via $$ m_f=y_f \, v. $$ The observed large mass hierarchy of the leptons, $$ m_e\simeq 0.5 \, {\rm MeV}, \quad m_\mu \simeq 105 \, {\rm MeV}, \quad m_\tau \simeq 1777 \, {\rm MeV}, $$ and the quarks, \begin{align} m_u &\simeq 2 \, {\rm MeV}, \quad m_c \simeq 1.27 \, {\rm GeV}, \quad m_t\simeq 170 \, {\rm GeV}\\[5pt] m_d &\simeq 4.7 \, {\rm MeV} \quad m_s \simeq 93.5 \, {\rm MeV}, \quad m_b \simeq 4.2 \, {\rm GeV}, \end{align} ranging over five orders of magnitude, can be accomodated but not explained within the framework of the standard model.

The mass hierarchy problem becomes even more pronounced in view of the neutrinos with masses $m_\nu < 0.8 \, {\rm eV}$. The theoretical description of the experimentally observed neutrino oscillations and the measured mass differences requires an extension of the minimal version of the standard model. In many of these extensions, the seesaw mechanism is employed as an explanation of the smallness of the neutrino masses compared to the masses of their charged leptonic partners.

Hyperon
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Back in 1984, "Split Light Composite Supermultiplets" by Masiero and Veneziano proposed that one generation of leptons could arise as fermionic mesons (i.e. as superpartners of pions etc., also known as "quasi Goldstone fermions" or "mesinos") in a supersymmetric theory.

This is the kernel of my favorite strategy for connecting the two scales: everything emerges from some kind of super-QCD, for example an $\mathcal{N}$=$1$ $U(3)$ SQCD (where the $U(1)$ is hypercharge). The leptons are mesinos, the Higgs vev is a toponium condensate, and $SU(2)_L$ is a gauged chiral symmetry from chiral perturbation theory. The (super) QCD scale would be fundamental, and the Fermi scale would derive from it. So it's like technicolor, but it's just SU(3) color plus supersymmetry.

Historically, the work on obtaining elementary fermions as quasi Goldstone fermions went a slightly different path. Rather than regard the quarks as funndamental and the leptons as emergent, theorists tried to obtain the entire standard model generation from a supersymmetric quotient of an exceptional group ("supersymmetric nonlinear sigma models"). I have not thought about whether the QCD scale and the Fermi scale could be correlated in such a theory.

Emergent mesino sectors have been studied most comprehensively in the guise of Seiberg duality. There have been various attempts to employ Seiberg duality in phenomenology, and again, I'm simply not sure if the Fermi scale could derive from the QCD scale in any of those theories. You could also try to make it work in a preon theory.

@arivero, who authored the similar previous question that you cite, has been thinking about similar ideas for many years.

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The fact that hadrons and charged leptons have somewhat similar masses is often taken as a hint that the standard model comes from a GUT. It is also encouraging that a lesser version of this (electroweak unification) has already been verified experimentally. But this does not address the question of why the masses of uncharged leptons (neutrinos) are so different. Something which could make this natural is the seesaw mechanism which involves a competition between Dirac mass terms and Majorana mass terms. The latter have not yet been observed.

Also, the typical mass of a particle which doesn't feel the strong force is not "the electroweak scale". The electroweak scale is comparable to the Higgs mass $\approx 125 \text{GeV}$ and therefore much larger than $\Lambda_{QCD}$.

Connor Behan
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