The role of instantons in scale-invariant gauge theories

Instanton calculations in scale-invariant gauge theories, such as QCD, have long been plaqued by divergences at large distances where strong coupling effects are important. Furthermore, Witten has argued that quantum effects may cause the instanton gas to disappear and has displayed this phenomenon in the CP^(N?1) model at large N. It is argued here that instantons can play a role in calculations involving an inherent infrared cut-off, and this is demonstrated in the CP^(N?1) model for large N at a finite temperature. Some results on finite-temperature QED are also obtained in passing.