Continuum limit of QED2 on a lattice

A path integral is defined for the vacuum expectation values of Euclidean QED₂ on a periodic lattice. Wilson's expression is used for the coupling between fermion and gauge fields. The action for the gauge field by itself is assumed to be a quadratic in place of Wilson's periodic action. The integral over the fermion field is carried out explicitly to obtain a Matthews-Salam formula for vacuum expectation values. For a combination of gauge and fermion fields $\text{G}$ on a lattice with spacing proportional to N^?1, N?Z⁺, the Matthews-Salam formula for the vacuum expectation 〈G〉_N has the form ($\text{G}$)_N=∫d_nu;W_N($\text{G}$,f), where dμ is an N-independent measure on a random electromagnetic field ? and $\text{W}{}_{\mathrm{N}}\text{(G, ?)}$ is an N-dependent function of ? determined by $\text{G}$. For a class of $\text{G}$ we prove that as N → ∞, $\text{W}{}_{\mathrm{N}}\text{(C, ?)}$ has a limit $\text{W(G, ?)}$ except possibly for a set of ? of measure zero. In subsequent articles it will be shown that ∫d_nu;W_N($\text{G}$,f) exists and lim_N→∞∫d_nu;W_N($\text{G}$,f).     

Phase transitions in quantum field theory. I. Phases of the Thirring model

In this series of papers we exhibit and analyse phase transitions in quantum field theory. In this paper we consider the Thirring model. We show that when the interaction becomes sufficiently attractive there is a transition to a vacuum that is ‘dead” in the sense there are no finite energy excitations. Nevertheless the corresponding continuum Green's functions exist. We make this demonstration precise by considering the model on a lattice and constructing the continuum limit explicitly on either side of the critical point. For this we extensively use the connection between the $\text{spin}\text{-}\text{1}\text{2}$x-y-z chain and the lattice model. We also show a new continuum theory with four fermion interactions exists in 1 + 1 dimensions. This theory corresponds to taking the continuum limit of the spin chain in absence of any external magnetic field. Its Hamiltonian differs from that of the Thirring model by addition of fermion number operator with an infinite coefficient and is not renormalizable in the conventional sense. It has more interesting critical properties and a different spectrum.     

Λ-parameters for asymmetric lattice gauge theories with fermions

Dimensional quantities obtained from Monte Carlo simulations on the lattice depend on the lattice mass parameter, Λ_L. To make a connection with continuum physics, a relationship is needed between Λ_L and the Λ-parameters of the continuum theory. This has been done for the euclidean symmetric lattice by others. However, in order to incorporate finite temperature into Monte Carlo studies, or to study the transition from the euclidean formulation to the hamiltonian formulation of gauge theories, asymmetric lattices (a_s≠a_t) may be used. In this paper, the assymetric calculations are extended and the ratio $\text{Λ}{}_{\mathrm{<mtext>min</mtext>}}\text{Λ}{}_{\mathrm{<mtext>L</mtext>}}$, where Λ_min is the continuum mass parameter in the minimal subtraction scheme, is given to one loop for n_f flavors of Wilson and Susskind massless fermions on an asymmetric four-dimensional lattice for two different asymmetric lattice actions.     

Universal weak coupling limit in (2+1)-dimensionalSU(2) lattice gauge theory

Mass gaps and wave functions in (2+1)-dimensionalSU (2) lattice gauge theory (no quarks) are investigated. Starting with lattice Hamiltonians possessing exactly known ground states and the correct naive continuum limit, it is possible to reach the very deep weak-coupling region. Using variational approximation and rescaling all parameters with the help of the dimensionful coupling constantg ², we gain a formulation that is independent of the special choice of the Hamiltonian in the weak-coupling limit. The mass gap can be calculated and a kind of wave function for excited states obtained.     

Effective lagrangian of mesons and baryons in the strong-coupling expansion of lattice QCD

U(N) and SU(N) lattice QCD are considered. By using a method of the strong-coupling expansion, the effective lagrangian of hadrons is calculated up to the first order in 1/(g²N). For the Susskind lattice fermions, it is shown that chiral symmetry is spontaneously broken and as a result there appears the Nambu-Goldstone boson (pion). The fermion condensation 〈$\text{ψ}\text{ψ}$t>, the masses of hadrons and the pion decay constant are calculated and compared with the results of Monte Carlo (MC) simulations. In the strong-coupling region, our result of the order parameter 〈$\text{ψ}\text{ψ}$〉 coincides very well with that calculated by MC simulations.     

Monte Carlo simulation of SU(2) gauge theory with fermions on a four-dimensional lattice

After integration over the fermions in an SU(2) lattice gauge theory, the effective fermionic action may be expressed as a sum over all possible closed gauge field loops with corresponding weight factors. We approximate this sum and perform a Monte Carlo simulation of a coupled fermion-gauge system on a 4⁴ lattice. We compare our results for 〈S_eff〉 and $\text{〈}\text{ψ}\text{ψ〉}$ for different values of the gauge field coupling β and fermion coupling κ with the free fermion theory on a lattice. 〈S_eff〉 turns out to be quite small for $\text{κ?}\text{1}\text{8}$.     

Renormalizability and asymptotic freedom in quantum gravity

We discuss a previously proposed renormalizable theory of gravity involving R²_μν, and N massless fermion (vector boson) fields in which the unitarity problem is resolved within a $\text{1}\text{N}$ expansion. The infrared limit is precisely Einstein's theory, but the high-energy behavior is determined by the dimensionless, asymptotically free coupling of the R²_μν. Various attractive possible consequences of the theory are pointed out.     

Towards the phase structure of euclidean lattice gauge theories with fermions

We propose the phase structure of abelian and non-abelian lattice gauge theories with fermions. We especially analyse Wilson's lattice action with euclidean discrete space-time. We mainly analyse $\text{〈}\text{ψ}{}_{\mathrm{n}}\text{ψ}{}_{\mathrm{n}}\text{〉}$ as an order parameter for the fermion-gauge coupled system. The Wilson loop integral and plaquette-plaquette two-point function are also useful in working out abelian phase diagrams. We will discuss physical implications of the phase diagrams, especially for the mass spectrum in the lattice continuum limit and chiral symmetry breaking. The 1/N expansion and a random walk idea are used in the formulation and play an important role in computing meson and baryon propagators in the strong coupling limit.     

Reduced Dirac-Kähler lattice fermion action

It is shown that the lattice Dirac-Kähler action is reducible under a chiral-like transformation. This provides a new lattice fermion action for spinors that have 2^d−1 components (instead of 2^d), with the property that, in the free case, each component satisfies the lattice euclidean Klein-Gordon equation. Reflection positivity is satisfied on the lattice, thus assuring a (positive) physical Hilbert space. In d = 4 dimensions the spinors have 8 components, and the correct physical chiral anomaly in the continuum limit. The action is suitable for QCD quarks which, in the continuum limit, are described by Dirac spinors that occur in flavor doublets.     

A strong-coupling expansion for fermion field theories and the large-N limit of the gross-neveu model

An expansion in the fermion propagator is formulated for the N-species Gross-Neveu model in the large-N limit. Different regularisation schemes may be adopted and we compare two. We find that a continuum momentum cut-off is easiest to work with and automatically avoids spurious fermionic states which afflict a naive lattice formulation. Chiral symmetry is broken at zeroth order and the resulting expansion is inverse powers of g²N simplifies considerably for large N. In this limit the strong-coupling expansion may be summed to all orders. Extrapolation techniques, like Padé approximants, are not needed. Using a momentum cut-off we recover all the exact results previously derived by summing weak-coupling expansions.     

Neutral heavy lepton candidate in e+e− interactions

An event of the form e⁺e^? → μ⁺μ^? + (2 jets) recently observed at √s = 43.45 GeV is interpreted as production of a pair of neutral heavy leptons N, each with mass 20.5 ± 1.0 Gev/c². Two possibilities are explored: (i) the lepton is a wak isodoublet neutrino, produced in pairs by virtual Z⁰ decay. In this case, one expects $\text{B(}\text{Z}{}^0\text{→}\text{N}\text{N}\text{) ≈ 5\%}$; (ii) the lepton is a “right-handed neutrino”, produced in pairs via a new vector boson Z_χ. In this case, in one model, the Z_χ must lie between about 50 and 67 GeV/c². More generally, it must be very weakly coupled to ordinary quarks and leptons in order not to conflict with low-q² neutral-current data. Suggestions are made for further observation of N$\text{N}$ pairs and other effects of Z_χ in forthcoming e⁺e^? and p$\text{p}$ collisions.     

On the thermodynamics and scaling behaviour of SU(2) gauge theory with fermion feedback

We study SU(2) lattice gauge theory with four species (N_f = 4) of light dynamical fermions by microcanonical simulation methods. Relatively large lattices, long runs and small quark masses are considered. On a 8³ × 16 lattice $\text{〈}\text{ψ}\text{ψ〉}$ is measured and good evidence for asymptotic freedom with fermion feedback is found. The scaling window begins at β = 4/g² ≈ 1.85. On a 12³ × 6 lattice SU(2) thermodynamics is studied systematically. The chiral symmetry restoration transition is found at β = 1.925 ± .025. The crossover from hadronic matter to the quark-gluon plasma is abrupt.     

A model for chiral symmetry breaking in QCD

A recently proposed model for dynamical breaking of chiral symmetry in QCD is extended and developed for the calculation of pion and chiral symmetry breaking parameters. The pion is explicitly realized as a massless Goldstone boson and as a bound state of the constituent quarks. We compute, in the limit of exact chiral symmetry, M_Q, the constituent quark mass $\text{?}{}_{\mathrm{\pi }}$ the pion decay coupling, $\text{〈}\text{u}\text{u〉}$, the constituent quark loop density, μ_π²/m_q, the ratio of the Goldstone boson mass squared to the bare quark mass, and 〈r²〉_π, the pion electromagnetic charge radius squared.     

Progress in lattice gauge theory

Two topics of lattice gauge theory are reviewed. They include string tension and β-function calculations by strong coupling Hamiltonian methods for SU(3) gauge fields in 3 + 1 dimensions, and a 1/N-expansion for discrete gauge and spin systems in all dimensions. The SU(3) calculations give solid evidence for the coexistence of quark confinement and asymptotic freedom in the renormalized continuum limit of the lattice theory. The crossover between weak and strong coupling behavior in the theory is seen to be a weak coupling but non-perturbative effect. Quantitative relationships between perturbative and non-perturbative renormalization schemes are obtained for the O(N) nonlinear sigma models in 1 + 1 dimensions as well as the range theory in 3 + 1 dimensions. Analysis of the strong coupling expansion of the β-function for gauge fields suggests that it has cuts in the complex 1/g²-plane. A toy model of such a cut structure which naturally explains the abruptness of the theory's crossover from weak to strong coupling is presented. The relation of these cuts to other approaches to gauge field dynamics is discussed briefly.The dynamics underlying first order phase transitions in a wide class of lattice gauge theories is exposed by considering a class of models-P(N) gauge theories - which are soluble in the N → ∞ limit and have non-trivial phase diagrams. The first order character of the phase transitions in Potts spin systems for N #62; 4 in 1 + 1 dimensions is explained in simple terms which generalizes to P(N) gauge systems in higher dimensions. The phase diagram of Ising lattice gauge theory coupled to matter fields is obtained in a $\text{1}\text{N}$ expansion. A one-plaquette model (1 time-0 space dimensions) with a first-order phase transitions in the N → ∞ limit is discussed.     

Higher orders in N−1 in the Gross-Neveu model

We study higher-order terms in the N expansion of the two-dimensional model field theory of Gross and Neveu. The quantity $\text{M}{}_{\mathrm{\sigma }}\text{2M}{}_{\mathrm{<mtext>F</mtext><mtext>?1</mtext>}}$ (M_F is the fermion mass, M_σ is the scalar bound-state mass), is conjectured to deviate from zero in O(N^?4). Order N^?1 corrections are found to leave unchanged both the symmetry-breaking, and the absence of zeros of the Callan-Symanzik function β for real non-zero coupling constant. Behavior of β for complex coupling constant is altered considerably by the corrections; consequences are discussed.We obtain the following additional results: proof that the model is renormalizable without the necessity of additional interactions; construction of a perturbation theory in the asymmetric vacuum; proof of a lemma on fermion-antifermion thresholds in two-dimensional space-time; derivation of closed formulae for arbitrary one-loop integrals in two-dimensional space-time.     

Continuum limit of overlap valence quarks on a twisted mass sea

We study a lattice QCD mixed action with overlap valence quarks on two flavours of Wilson maximally twisted mass sea quarks. Employing three different matching conditions to relate both actions to each other, we investigate the continuum limit by using three values of the lattice spacing ranging from a≈0.05 fm$a\approx 0.05\text{fm}$ to 0.08 fm$0.08\text{fm}$. A particular emphasis is put on the effect on physical observables of the topological zero modes appearing in the valence overlap operator. We estimate the region of parameter space where the contribution from these zero modes is sufficiently small such that their effects can be safely controlled and a restoration of unitarity of the mixed action in the continuum limit is reached.     

Spontaneous chiral symmetry breaking for a U(N) gauge theory on a lattice

We study the breakdown of chiral invariance by calculating, in the infinite coupling, large-N limit, the generating functional of a U(N) gauge theory with one fermion, expressed on a lattice with the naive, chiral symmetric action. We compute the link integral over the gauge fields and the expression obtained after the integration over the fermions is recast under the form of a generating functional for bosonic fields. Then, a saddle-point method allows the calculation of the order parameter $\text{〈}\text{ψ}\text{ψ〉}$ for which a non-zero value signals the spontaneous breakdown of chiral symmetry. The analysis of the fluctuations around the saddle point allows one to exhibit the Goldstone modes corresponding to those global symmetries of the fermionic lattice action which are simultaneously broken.     

Comparison of lattice gauge theories with gauge groups Z2 and SU(2)

We study a model of a pure Yang Mills theory with gauge group SU(2) on a lattice in Euclidean space. We compare it with the model obtained by restricting variables to $\text{Z}$₂. An inequality relating expectation values of the Wilson loop integral in the two theories is established. It shows that confinement of static quarks is true in our SU(2) model whenever it holds for the corresponding $\text{Z}$₂-model. The SU(2) model is shown to have high and low temperature phases that are distinguished by a qualitatively different behavior of the 't Hooft disorder parameter.