Chiral symmetry and lattice QCD

Four lectures about chiral symmetry and dynamical fermions in QCD. 1) Chiral symmetry in continuum QCD with an eye toward lattice simulations. 2) Lattice fermions with exact chiral symmetry: staggered fermions, fermions in five dimensions, chiral fermions in four dimensions. 3) A typical lattice simulation from beginning to end: the simulation algorithm, designing observables to measure some desired quantity, analyzing the data. 4) Recent lattice results relevant to chiral symmetry: a mini-review.     

Dynamical fermion mass hierarchy and flavour mixing

The chiral symmetry breaking of high colour representations produces dynamical breaking of the standard electroweak gauge symmetry. By enlarging the colour group and subsequently breaking it down toSU(3) _c fermions acquire radiative masses from the chiral breaking. We present attempts to produce realistic fermion mass matrix in two classes of models depending on the way that the colour group is enlarged. A realistic example is found in one of these classes of models.     

Interacting fermions on a random lattice

We extend previous work on the properties of the Dirac lagrangian on two-dimensional random lattices to the case where interaction terms are included. Although for free fermions the chiral symmetry of the doubles is spontaneously broken by their interaction with the lattice and they decouple from long-distance physics, our results in this paper show that all is undone by quantum corrections in an interacting field theory and that the end result is very similar to what is found with Wilson fermions. Two field-theoretical models with interacting fermions are studied by perturbation expansion in the field theory coupling constant. These are a model with one fermion and one boson species interacting via a scalar Yukawa coupling and the massive Thirring model. It is shown that on the random lattice ultraviolet finite diagrams and finite parts of ultraviolet divergent diagrams have the correct continuum limit. Ultraviolet divergent parts can be removed by the same renormalisation procedure as in the continuum, but do not exhibit the same dependence on the lagrangian mass. In the case of the massive Thirring model this causes a fermion mass correction of order the cut-off scale, which breaks the chiral symmetry of the remaining light fermion; there is consequently a fine-tuning problem. In the context of the same model we discuss the effect of the Goldstone boson associated with the spontaneous breakdown of the chiral symmetry of the doubles on two-dimensional models with vector couplings.     

Chirality index and dimensional reduction of fermions

The number of four-dimensional chiral fermions obtained from dimensional reduction of models with spinor matter fields coupled to pure gravity in d > 4 dimensions is linked to topological properties of the internal d ? 4 dimensional space. This gives important restrictions on possible ground states of such models consistent with a realistic four-dimensional unified theory. Connections with spontaneous symmetry breaking and Yukawa couplings of fermions in unified theories are discussed.     

Domain wall fermions with Majorana couplings

We examine the lattice boundary formulation of chiral fermions with either an explicit Majorana mass or a Higgs-Majorana coupling introduced on one of the boundaries. We demonstrate that the low-lying spectrum of the models with an explicit Majorana mass of the order of an inverse lattice spacing is chiral at tree level. Within a mean-field approximation we show that the systems with a strong Higgs-Majorana coupling have a symmetric phase, in which a Majorana mass of the order of an inverse lattice spacing is generated without spontaneous breaking of the gauge symmetry. We argue, however, that the models within such a phase have a chiral spectrum only in terms of the fermions that are singlets under the gauge group. The application of such systems to non-perturbative formulations of supersymmetric and chiral gauge theories is briefly discussed.     

Heavy fermions in gauge theories: (I). Analysis of a general spinor loop

A general one-loop spinor diagram is analyzed in the coordinate space with an arbitrary number of external scalar, pseudoscalar, vector and axial vector legs. We identify chiral anomalies, and an unambiguous definition of a renormalized spinor loop amplitude in gauge theories is given by studying its symmetry properties. We then study the case when some of fermions carry very large masses compared to external momentum scales. Using a new calculational technique based on Schwinger's proper-time method, we provide the explicit forms of dominant effective local vertices induced by virtual heavy fermions in general spontaneously broken gauge theories. In the sequel to the present paper, these results will be applied to various interesting field theory models.     

Fermions in a single-point model of QCD with many colours and flavours

I consider the fermion dynamics of a reduced model of Chromodynamics in the topological limit. Contrary to the lattice theory (with naive fermions) the reduced model has the same chiral symmetry as the continuum theory. The origin of the (perhaps benificial) error in the reduction procedure is discussed. Also I look for other reduced models.     

A numerical study of lattice QED with dynamical fermions

Using the pseudo-fermion method U(1) lattice gauge theory with dynamical staggered fermions is studied. The plaqette energy, the chiral order parameter and the Polyakov line have been measured. With fermions of mass 0.20 and 0.25 a phase transition is observed, separating the strong coupling regime from a phase where chiral symmetry is restored.     

Gapless Chiral Superconducting ( d + id )-Wave Phase in Strongly Correlated Layered Material with a Triangular Lattice

It is shown that interlayer electron tunneling in the quasi-two-dimensional ensemble of Hubbard fermions leads to the realization of the gapless superconducting phase with the chiral (d + id)-wave order parameter symmetry, not for a single value of sodium ion concentration, but in a wide range of concentrations. Precisely this situation corresponds to experimental data on the layered sodium cobaltite intercalated by water (NaxCoO2 ⋅ yH2O). Intra-atomic electron repulsion that determines the strong electron correlation regime leads to the representation of Hubbard fermions, the interaction of which ensures Cooper instability. Intersite intralayer interactions between fermions considerably affect the positions of nodal points of the chiral order parameter and change the critical concentration at which a topological transition occurs in the 2D system of Hubbard fermions.     

The role of spurions in Higgs-less electroweak effective theories

Inspired by recent developments of moose models, we reconsider low-energy effective theories of Goldstone bosons, gauge fields and chiral fermions applied to low-energy QCD and to Higgs-less electroweak symmetry breaking. Couplings and the corresponding reduction of symmetry are introduced via constraints enforced by a set of non-propagating covariantly constant spurion fields. Relics of the latter are used as small expansion parameters conjointly with the usual low-energy expansion. Certain couplings can only appear at higher orders of the spurion expansion and, consequently, they become naturally suppressed independently of the idea of dimensional deconstruction. At leading order this leads to a set of generalized Weinberg sum rules and to the suppression of non-standard couplings to fermions in Higgs-less EWSB models with the minimal particle content. Within the latter, higher spurion terms allow for a fermion mass matrix with the standard CKM structure and C P violation. In addition, Majorana masses for neutrinos are possible. Examples of non-minimal models are briefly mentioned.Received: 8 January 2004, Revised: 7 February 2004, Published online: 2 April 2004     

Permanent confinement in the compact QED3 with fermionic matter

We argue that the compact three dimensional electrodynamics with massless relativistic fermions is always in the confined phase, in spite of the bare interaction between the magnetic monopoles being rendered logarithmic by fermions. The effect is caused by screening by other dipoles, which transforms the logarithmic back into the Coulomb interaction at large distances. Possible implications for the chiral symmetry breaking for fermions are discussed, and the global phase diagram of the theory is proposed.     

The invariant factor of the chiral determinant

The coupling of spin 0 and spin 1 external fields to Dirac fermions defines a theory which displays gauge chiral symmetry. Quantum-mechanically, functional integration of the fermions yields the determinant of the Dirac operator, known as the chiral determinant. Its modulus is chiral invariant but not so its phase, which carries the chiral anomaly through the Wess–Zumino–Witten term. Here we find the remarkable result that, upon removal from the chiral determinant of this known anomalous part, the remaining chiral-invariant factor is just the square root of the determinant of a local covariant operator of the Klein–Gordon type. This procedure bypasses the integrability obstruction allowing one to write down a functional that correctly reproduces both the modulus and the phase of the chiral determinant. The technique is illustrated by computing the effective action in two dimensions at leading order (LO) in the derivative expansion. The results previously obtained by indirect methods are indeed reproduced.     

Composite massless fermions in strongly coupled lattice gauge theories

We show that a class of strongly coupled lattice gauge theories with fermions in real representations of the gauge group do not have chiral symmetry breaking. The resulting spectrum of massless composite fermions satisfies 't Hooft's constraints if the model is naively extrapolated to the continuum limit. We argue that it is in fact the correct spectrum of the continuum gauge theory.     

Chiral-invariant regularization of fermions on the lattice

We propose a non-local formulation of lattice fermions, which preserves chiral symmetry for vanishing mass and is quite convenient for numerical calculations. We also show that the chiral current exhibits the correct anomalous divergence in the continuum limit.     

The spectral density of the QCD Dirac operator and patterns of chiral symmetry breaking

We study the spectrum of the QCD Dirac operator for two colors with fermions in the fundamental representation and for two or more colors with adjoint fermions. For N_f flavors, the chiral flavor symmetry of these theories is spontaneously broken according to SU (2N_f → Sp (2N_f) and SU (N_f → O (N_f), respectively, rather than the symmetry breaking pattern SU (N_f) × SU (N_f) → SU (N_f) for QCD with three or more colors and fundamental fermions. In this paper we study the Dirac spectrum for the first two symmetry breaking patterns. Following previous work for the third case we find the Dirac spectrum in the domain λ Λ_QCD by means of partially quenched chiral perturbation theory. In particular, this result allows us to calculate the slope of the Dirac spectrum at λ = 0. We also show that for λ 1/L₂ Λ_QCD (wing L the linear size fo the system) the Dirac spectrum is given by a chiral Random Matrix Theory with the symmetries of the Dirac operator.     

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.     

The Phase Structure of a Generalized Gross–Neveu Model in (2+1)-Dimensional Space–Time

The phase structure of a (2+1)-dimensional Gross–Neveu model with four different channels of fermion–antifermion interaction, and, correspondingly, four different coupling constants, is studied. It is shown that the model describes five different phases of the interaction of planar fermions in which either spatial parity or chiral symmetry can be broken. The existence of a phase that is characterized by simultaneous spontaneous breaking of both these symmetries that was not observed earlier in such models is demonstrated.     

Chiral Syqmetry Restoration in Lattice Gauge Theory

The pion mass& calculated starting from the strongly coupling effective Hamiltonian for Wilson fermions by using Green function method. The possibility of the chiral symmetry restoration at a critical quark maas is also investigated.     

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