# 1 Introduction

## 1 Introduction

Recently non-commutative Yang-Mills theory  attracted a lot of attention, mainly due to discoveries of new connections to string theory. In a recent paper, it was suggested that the divergences of the non-commutative Yang-Mills theory are dictated by the large $`N_c`$ limit of the theory. Namely, that divergences occur only in planar diagrams (the observation that the planar commutative and non-commutative theories are the same up to phases in the Green functions, was already made in. A careful analysis of the divergences was carried out in ref.).

Another direction of research is the study of orbifold field theories - motivated by the AdS/CFT correspondence . It was conjectured by Kachru and Silverstein  that orbifolds of $`AdS_5\times S^5`$ which act on the $`S^5`$ part define a large $`N_c`$ finite theory, even when the R-symmetry is completely broken and the theory is not supersymmetric. This conjecture was later proved using both field theory  and string theory  techniques.

In this note we would like to consider non-commutative Yang-Mills theories which are obtained by an orbifold truncation of $`𝒩=4`$SYM. We suggest that these theories are UV finite, namely that there are no divergent Feynman diagrams, even when the theory under consideration is non-supersymmetric and the number of colors is finite. Note, however, that our conjecture relies on recent suggestions  about UV finiteness of non-planar graphs in the non-commutative theory. The later were not fully proved yet, but seems to be necessary if the non-commutative theory is renormalizable.

## 2 Orbifold field theories

Orbifold field theories are obtained by a certain truncation of a supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory. Let us consider the special case of $`𝒩=4`$. The truncation procedure is as follows: consider a discrete subgroup $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ of the $`𝒩=4`$R-symmetry group $`SU(4)`$. For each element of the orbifold group, a representation $`\gamma `$ inside $`SU(|\mathrm{\Gamma }|N_c)`$ should be specified. Each field $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ transform as $`\mathrm{\Phi }r\gamma ^{}\mathrm{\Phi }\gamma `$, where $`r`$ is a representation matrix inside the R-symmetry group. The truncation is achieved by keeping invariant fields. The resulting theory has a reduced amount of supersymmetry, or no supersymmetry at all. It was conjectured, based on the AdS/CFT conjecture, that the truncated large $`N_c`$ theories are finite as the parent $`𝒩=4`$theory. Later it was proved  that the planar diagrams of the truncated theory and parent theories are identical. In particular it means that the perturbative beta function of the large $`N_c`$ daughter theory is zero and that the theory is finite.

In the cases of $`𝒩=2`$truncations, there is only one-loop (perturbative) contribution to the beta function. Its vanishing indicates the perturbative finiteness of the daughter theory at finite $`N_c`$ as well.

In $`𝒩=1`$truncations the situation is more subtle. Indeed, the theory is finite at finite values of $`N_c`$, but the finiteness is due to Leigh-Strassler type of arguments. In that case one should consider the $`SU(N_c)`$ version of the theory (and not the $`U(N_c)`$ theory which is obtained from the string theory orbifold), since the $`U(1)`$ beta function is always positive at the origin. In addition $`\frac{1}{N_c^2}`$ shifts of the Yukawa couplings are needed.

In the non-supersymmetric case there are no known examples of finite theories at finite $`N_c`$, though attempts in this direction using orbifolds were recently made. As we shall see, due to non-commutativity such examples can be found.

## 3 Perturbative behavior of non-commutative Yang-Mills theories

Recently, several authors analyzed the renormalization behavior of non-commutative Yang-Mills theories (for an earlier discussion see. Related works are ). We briefly review their analysis. The Feynman rules of the commutative and non-commutative theories in momentum space are very similar. In fact the only difference is that each vertex of the non-commutative theory acquires a phase, $`\mathrm{exp}i\mathrm{\Sigma }_{i<j}k_ik_j`$ (the Moyal phase), with respect to the vertex of ordinary commutative theory. For planar diagrams, this phase cancels at internal loops and the only remnant is an overall phase. Therefore the planar commutative and non-commutative theories are similar, in accordance with recent findings. In particular, thermodynamical quantities such as the free energy and the entropy are not affected by non-commutativity at the planar limit .

Another claim is that the oscillations of the Moyal phases at high momentum would regulate non-planar diagrams, namely that UV divergences of non-planar diagrams would disappear. There are two exceptional cases in which non-planar diagrams will still diverge: (i). When the non-planar diagrams consist of planar sub-diagrams which might diverge. (ii). For specific values of momentum (a zero measure set) the Moyal phase can be zero. Indeed, it was shown lately  that in theories which contain scalars - there are non-planar divergences. The theories that we will consider contain scalars and therefore contain infinities, however  interpret these divergences as Infra-Red divergences. The reason is as follows: The integrals which are associated with non-planar graphs converge unless the Moyal phase is set to zero by a vanishing incoming momentum. In this case new type of divergences appear, and it seems that infinite number of counterterms are needed. Therefore the non-commutative theory seems to be non-renormalizable. However, the authors of ref. suggest that the re-summation of these divergent non-planar graphs would yield a finite result. Their observation is based on the similarity between the present case and the standard (commutative) IR divergences. Note that Infra-Red divergences are, anyways, expected in theories with massless particles. Thus, ’truly’ divergences in the non-commutative theory occur only in planar graphs.

## 4 Finiteness of non-commutative orbifold field theories

Let us now consider an orbifold truncation of non-commutative $`𝒩=4`$SYM. These theories can be defined perturbatively by a set of Feynman rules. The natural definition would be to attach to each vertex the corresponding Moyal phase. According to ref., the only potential divergences are the ones which arise in planar diagrams. Non-planar diagrams are expected to be finite, except for some “accidental” divergences . Note that the infinities which do occur in these graphs are associated with the Infra-Red  and therefore do not contradict our claim that orbifold field theories are UV finite.

According to the analysis of , the planar diagrams of an orbifold theory can be evaluated by using the corresponding diagrams of the parent non-commutative $`𝒩=4`$. These diagrams are finite since they differ from the commutative $`𝒩=4`$only by an overall phase. In this way sub-divergences of non-planar diagrams will also be canceled. We therefore conclude that any orbifold truncation of non-commutative non-compact $`𝒩=4`$SYM is finite. In particular, it means that we might have a rich class of non-supersymmetric gauge theories which are finite, even at finite $`N_c`$ (in contrast to ordinary non-supersymmetric orbifold field theories, where the two loop beta function is generically non-zero). Note that though these theories might be finite, they are certainly not conformal.

Let us consider a specific example. The example is an $`SU(N)\times SU(N)`$ gauge theory with 6 scalars in the adjoint of each of the gauge groups and 4 Weyl fermions in the $`(N,\overline{N})`$ and 4 Weyl fermions in the $`(\overline{N},N)`$ bifundamental representations. It is the theory which lives on dyonic D3 branes of type 0 string theory and can be also understood, from the field theory point of view, as a $`Z_2`$ orbifold projection of $`𝒩=4`$SYM. The large $`N_c`$ commutative theory contains a line of fixed points. We suggest that its analogous non-commutative (finite $`N_c`$) theory is finite at that line. Namely, at $`g_1=g_2=h_1=h_2`$, where $`g_1,g_2`$ are the gauge couplings and $`h_1,h_2`$ are the Yukawa couplings. Note that in contrast to the commutative case the position of the line of finite theories is not corrected by $`\frac{1}{N_c}`$ contributions.

Finally, it might be interesting to understand how the finiteness of these theories arise from string theory orbifolds.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to thank O. Aharony, N. Itzhaki and B. Kol for useful discussions and comments. This work was supported in part by EEC TMR contract ERBFMRX-CT96-0090.