ON ε-CONJECTURE IN a-THEOREM

The derivation of the a-theorem recently proposed by Komargodski and Schwimmer relies on the c-conjecture that demands decoupling of dilaton from the rest of the infrared theory. We point out that the decoupling, if true, provides a strong evidence for the equivalence between scale invariance and conformal invariance in four dimensions. Thus, a complete proof of the a-theorem along the line of their argument in the most generic scenario would establish the equivalence between scale invariance and conformal invariance, which is another long-standing conjecture in four-dimensional quantum field theories.