THE QCD BETA-FUNCTION AT O (1 N-F)

The leading order coefficients of the beta-function of QCD are compute d in a large N-f expansion. They are in agreement with the three loop <(MS)over bar>calculation. The method involves computing the anomalous dimension of the operator (G(mu nu)(alpha))(2), at the d-dimensional fixed point in the non-abelian Thirring model to which QCD is equivale nt in this limit. The effect the O(1/N-f) corrections have on the loca tion of the infrared stable fixed point for a range of N-f is also exa mined.