Optimised Dirac operators on the lattice: construction,properties and applications

We review a number of topics related to block variable renormalisation group transformations of quantum fields on the lattice, and to the emerging perfect lattice actions. We first illustrate this procedure by considering scalar fields. Then we proceed to lattice fermions, where we discuss perfect actions for free fields, for the Gross‐Neveu model and for a supersymmetric spin model. We also consider the extension to perfect lattice perturbation theory, in particular regarding the axial anomaly and the quark gluon vertex function. Next we deal with properties and applications of truncated perfect fermions, and their chiral correction by means of the overlap formula. This yields a formulation of lattice fermions, which combines exact chiral symmetry with an optimisation of further essential properties. We summarise simulation results for these so‐called overlap‐hypercube fermions in the two‐flavour Schwinger model and in quenched QCD. In the latter framework we establish a link to Chiral Perturbation Theory, both, in the p‐regime and in the ϵ‐regime. In particular we present an evaluation of the leading Low Energy Constants of the chiral Lagrangian – the chiral condensate and the pion decay constant – from QCD simulations with extremely light quarks.     

Lattice calculations

In this contribution we describe how an exact chiral symmetry can be realized on the lattice. A practical realization of a lattice Dirac operator that leads to a chiral invariant lattice action is discussed and a simulation with this operator is presented that aims at testing the phenomenon of spontaneous chiral symmetry breaking in QCD.Received: 30 September 2002, Published online: 22 October 2003PACS: 11.15.Ha Lattice gauge theory - 12.38.Gc Lattice QCD calculations     

A chiral invariant decoupling of replica lattice fermions

A chiral invariant lattice fermion action which solves the species-doubling problem of Dirac fermions on a lattice for (even) dimensions of space-time less than eight is presented. The decoupling of replica fermions requires to give up rotational and gauge symmetry in the regularization procedure. The corresponding lattice Schwinger model reproduces all the results of the continuum theory.     

A statistical mechanics view of quantum chromodynamics: Lattice gauge theory

Recent developments in lattice gauge theory are discussed from a statistical mechanics viewpoint. The basic physics problems of quantum chromodynamics (QCD) are reviewed for an audience of critical phenomena theorists. The idea of local gauge symmetry and color, the connection between statistical mechanics and field theory, asymptotic freedom and the continuum limit of lattice gauge theories, and the order parameters (confinement and chiral symmetry) of QCD are reviewed. Then recent developments in the field are discussed. These include the proof of confinement in the lattice theory, numerical evidence for confinement in the continuum limit of lattice gauge theory, and perturbative improvement programs for lattice actions. Next, we turn to the new challenges facing the subject. These include the need for a better understanding of the lattice Dirac equation and recent progress in the development of numerical methods for fermions (the pseudofermion stochastic algorithm and the microcanonical, molecular dynamics equation of motion approach). Finally, some of the applications of lattice gauge theory to QCD spectrum calculations and the thermodynamics of. QCD will be discussed and a few remarks concerning future directions of the field will be made.Supported in part by the NSF under grant No. PHY82-01948     

Chiral symmetry on the lattice with Wilson fermions

The chiral properties of the continuum limit of lattice QCD with Wilson fermions are studied. We show that a partially conserved axial current can be defined, satisfying the usual current algebra requirements.A proper definition of the chiral symmetry order parameter, $\text{〈0|}\text{ψ}\text{ψ|0〉}$, is given, and the chiral properties of composite operators are investigated. The implications of our analysis to the lattice determination of non-leptonic weak amplitudes are also discussed.     

Effects of the anomaly on the two-flavor QCD chiral phase transition

We use strongly coupled lattice QED with two flavors of massless staggered fermions to model the chiral phase transition in two-flavor massless QCD. Our model allows us to vary the QCD anomaly and thus study its effects on the transition. Our study confirms the widely accepted viewpoint that the chiral phase transition is first order in the absence of the anomaly. Turning on the anomaly weakens the transition and turns it second order at a critical anomaly strength. The anomaly strength at the tricritical point is characterized using r=(M(eta')-M(pi))/rho(eta'), where M(eta'), M(pi) are the screening masses of the anomalous and regular pions and rho(eta') is the mass scale that governs the low energy fluctuations of the anomalous symmetry. We estimate that r ~ 7 in our model. This suggests that a strong anomaly at the two-flavor QCD chiral phase transition is necessary to wash out the first order transition.     

Proof of chiral symmetry breaking in strongly coupled lattice gauge theory

We study chiral symmetry in the strong coupling limit of lattice gauge theory with staggered fermions and show rigorously that chiral symmetry is broken spontaneously in massless QED and the gauge-invariant Nambu-Jona-Lasinio model if the dimension of spacetime is at least four. The results for the chiral condensate as a function of the mass imply that the mean-field approximation is an upper bound for this observable which becomes exact as the dimension goes to infinity. For the model with gauge groupU(N),N=2,3,4, we prove that chiral long-range order exists at zero mass in four or more dimensions. Address after August 1991: Mathematics Department, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada V6T1Y4     

K-->pipi amplitudes from lattice QCD with a light charm quark

We compute the leading-order low-energy constants of the DeltaS=1 effective weak Hamiltonian in the quenched approximation of QCD with up, down, strange, and charm quarks degenerate and light. They are extracted by comparing the predictions of finite-volume chiral perturbation theory with lattice QCD computations of suitable correlation functions carried out with quark masses ranging from a few MeV up to half of the physical strange mass. We observe a DeltaI=1/2 enhancement in this corner of the parameter space of the theory. Although matching with the experimental result is not observed for the DeltaI=1/2 amplitude, our computation suggests large QCD contributions to the physical DeltaI=1/2 rule in the GIM limit, and represents the first step to quantify the role of the charm-quark mass in K-->pipi amplitudes. The use of fermions with an exact chiral symmetry is an essential ingredient in our computation.     

Phase transitions in QCD as tunneling through singular barriers

We show that the phase transitions of QCD, chiral symmetry breaking and confinement, can be interpreted physically as tunneling through (infrared) singular barriers. The appearance of monopoles in QCD and the properties of massless fermions in a meron field are discussed in the context of this interpretation.     

Lattice QCD with overlap fermions on GPUs

Lattice QCD is widely considered the correct theory of the strong force and is able to make quantitative statements in the low energy regime where perturbation theory is not applicable. The partition function of lattice QCD can be mapped onto a statistical mechanics system which then allows for the use of calculational methods such as Monte Carlo simulations. In recent years, the enormous success of GPU programming has also arrived at the lattice community. In this article, we give a short overview of Lattice QCD and motivate this need for large computing power. In our simulations we concentrate on a specific fermionic discretization, so-called Neuberger-Dirac fermions, which respect an exact chiral symmetry. We will discuss the algorithms we use in our GPU implementation which turns out to be an order of magnitude faster then the conventional CPU-equivalent. As an application we present results on the eigenvalue spectra in QCD and compare them to analytical calculations from Random Matrix Theory.     

Topological objects in QCD

Topological excitations are prominent candidates for explaining nonperturbative effects in QCD like confinement. In these lectures, I cover both formal treatments and applications of topological objects. The typical phenomena like BPS bounds, topology, the semiclassical approximation and chiral fermions are introduced by virtue of kinks. Then I proceed in higher dimensions with magnetic monopoles and instantons and special emphasis on calorons. Analytical aspects are discussed and an overview over models based on these objects as well as lattice results is given.     

Spectra of massive and massless QCD dirac operators: A novel link

We show that integrable structure of chiral random matrix models incorporating global symmetries of QCD Dirac operators (labeled by the Dyson index beta = 1,2, and 4) leads to emergence of a connection relation between the spectral statistics of massive and massless Dirac operators. This novel link established for beta-fold degenerate massive fermions is used to explicitly derive (and prove the random matrix universality of) statistics of low-lying spectra of QCD Dirac operators in the presence of SU(2) massive fermions in the fundamental representation ( beta = 1) and SU(N(c)>/=2) massive adjoint fermions ( beta = 4). Comparison with available lattice data for SU(2) dynamical staggered fermions reveals a good agreement.     

A lattice Dirac operator for QCD with light dynamical quarks

In QCD chiral symmetry is explicitly broken by quark masses, the effect of which can be described reliably by chiral perturbation theory. Effects of explicit chiral symmetry breaking by the lattice regularisation of the Dirac operator, typically parametrised by the residual mass, should be negligible for almost all observables if the residual mass of the Dirac operator is much smaller than the quark mass. However, maintaining a small residual mass becomes increasingly expensive as the quark mass decreases towards the physical value and the continuum limit is approached. We investigate the feasibility of using a new approximately chiral Dirac operator with a small residual mass as an alternative to overlap and domain wall fermions for lattice simulations. Our Dirac operator is constructed from a Zolotarev rational approximation for the matrix sign function that is optimal for bulk modes of the hermitian kernel Dirac operator but not for the low-lying parts of its spectrum. We test our operator on various ³²³×64${32}^3\times 64$ lattices, comparing the residual mass and the performance of the Hybrid Monte Carlo algorithm at a similar lattice spacing and pion mass with a hyperbolic tangent operator as used by domain wall fermions. We find that our approximations have a significantly smaller residual mass than domain wall fermions at a similar computational cost, and still admit topological charge change.     

Pairs of chiral quarks on the lattice from staggered fermions

A new formulation of chiral fermions on the lattice is presented. It is a version of overlap fermions, but built from the computationally efficient staggered fermions rather than the previously used Wilson fermions. The construction reduces the four quark flavors described by the staggered fermion to two quark flavors; this pair can be taken as the up and down quarks in Lattice QCD. A domain wall formulation giving a truncation of this overlap construction is also outlined.     

Topology of dynamical lattice configurations including results from dynamical overlap fermions

We investigate how the topological charge density in lattice QCD simulations is affected by violations of chiral symmetry caused by the fermion action. To this end we compare lattice configurations generated with a number of different actions including first configurations generated with exact dynamical overlap quarks. We visualize the topological profiles after mild smearing. In the topological charge correlator we measure the size of the positive core, which is known to shrink to zero extension in the continuum limit. To leading order we find the core size to scale linearly with the lattice spacing with the same coefficient for all actions, even including quenched simulations. In the subleading term the different actions vary over a range of about 10%. Our findings suggest that non-chiral lattice actions at current lattice spacings do not differ much for observables related to topology, both among themselves and compared to overlap fermions.     

Lattice fermions in euclidean space-time

A very short proof of a no-go theorem for putting fermions on a lattice is given using the Poincaré-Hopf theorem. The no-go theorem forbids the lattice formulation of theories with handed fermions without species doubling. Examples of such theories are chiral invariant QCD and the Weinberg-Salam-Glashow model. We give arguments why it could be possible to circumvent the no-go theorem by relaxing one of the assumptions, viz. bilinearity of the action in the fermion fields.     

Effective lagrangian and dynamical symmetry breaking in strongly coupled lattice QCD

A method is proposed for computing effective lagrangians in QCD with N colors using lattice regularization. The meson field lagrangian is worked out in detail in the strong coupling limit with various lattice fermion formulations. For generalized Susskind fermions the spontaneous breakdown U(n) ? U(n) → U(n) (diagonal) is found at large N and a generalized version of the non-linear σ model emerges in a natural way. The Nambu-Goldstone spectrum is investigated and a continuous transition is made to Wilson fermions, for which the effective potential and the ππ scattering amplitude are tested on chiral symmetry. Large d (=dimension) approximations are compared with the large N limit and applied to N = 3.     

q-deformed supersymmetric Newton oscillators

We propose that in QCD with dynamical quarks, colour deconfinement occurs when an external field induced by the chiral condensate strongly aligns the Polyakov loop. This effect sets in at the chiral symmetry restoration temperature and thus makes deconfinement and chiral symmetry restoration coincide. The predicted singular behaviour of Polyakov loop susceptibilities at is shown to be supported by finite temperature lattice calculations. Received: 27 September 2000 / Published online: 8 December 2000     

A Wilson-Yukawa Model with undoubled chiral fermions in 2D

We consider the fermion mass spectrum in the strong coupling vortex phase (VXS) of a lattice fermion-scalar model with a global U(1)_L × U(1)_R, in two dimensions, in the context of a recently proposed two-cutoff lattice formulation. The fermion doublers are made massive by a strong Wilson-Yukawa coupling, but in contrast with the standard formulation of these type of models, in which the light fermion spectrum was found to be vector-like, we find massless fermions with chiral quantum numbers at finite lattice spacing. When the global symmetry is gauged, this model is expected to give rise to a lattice chiral gauge theory.     

Topological susceptibility in lattice QCD with unimproved Wilson fermions

We address a long standing problem regarding topology in lattice simulations of QCD with unimproved Wilson fermions. Earlier attempt with unimproved Wilson fermions at β=5.6 to verify the suppression of topological susceptibility with decreasing quark mass (mq) was unable to unambiguously confirm the suppression. We carry out systematic calculations for two degenerate flavours at two different lattice spacings (β=5.6 and 5.8). The effects of quark mass, lattice volume and the lattice spacing on the spanning of different topological sectors are presented. We unambiguously demonstrate the suppression of the topological susceptibility with decreasing quark mass, expected from chiral Ward identity and chiral perturbation theory.