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Lattice QCD with 8 Light Quark Flavors

QCD with eight flavors is studied on $16^3\times N_t$ lattices with $N_t=4$, 6, 8, 16 and 32, a dynamical quark mass $ma=0.015$ and lattice coupling $β=6/g^2$ between 4.5 and 5.0. For $N_t=16$ and 32, hadron masses and screening lengths are computed for a variety of valence quark masses. The previously observed, strong, first-order transition for $N_t=4$, 6 and 8 is seen, for $N_t=16$, to become a $β$-independent, zero-temperature transition characterized by a factor of $\approx 3$ change in lattice scale. This strong, first-order transition restores chiral symmetry, at least for $N_t=4$, 6 and 8, producing a chirally symmetric, weak-coupling phase. However, as $N_t$ increases to 16, the chiral symmetry properties of the weak-coupling side of the zero-temperature transition are unclear and offer a hint of a normal, finite-temperature, chiral symmetry breaking transition in the weak-coupling phase.