We analyze the many-flavor phase diagram of quantum electrodynamics (QED) in $2+1$ (Euclidean) space-time dimensions. We compute the critical flavor number above which the theory is in the quasiconformal massless phase. For this, we study the renormalization group fixed-point structure in the space of gauge interactions and pointlike fermionic self-interactions, the latter of which are induced dynamically by fermion-photon interactions. We find that a reliable estimate of the critical flavor number crucially relies on a careful treatment of the Fierz ambiguity in the fermionic sector. Using a Fierz-complete basis, our results indicate that the phase transition towards a chirally broken phase occurring at small flavor numbers could be separated from the quasiconformal phase at larger flavor numbers, allowing for an intermediate phase which is dominated by fluctuations in a vector channel. If these interactions approach criticality, the intermediate phase could be characterized by a Lorentz-breaking vector condensate.

• Received 16 April 2014

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.90.036002