Conjecture on the Physical Implications of the Scale Anomaly

Abstract

Murray Gell-Mann, after co-inventing QCD, recognized the interplay of the scale anomaly, the renormalization group, and the origin of the strong scale, Lambda_{QCD}. I tell a story, then elaborate this concept, and for the sake of discussion, propose a conjecture that the physical world is scale invariant in the classical, \hbar -> 0, limit. This principle has implications for the dimensionality of space-time, the cosmological constant, the weak scale, and Planck scale.

Comments: Invited talk delivered at the Santa Fe Institute on the Occasion of the Celebration of the 75th Birthday of Murray Gell-Mann. July 23, 2005