Hadron mass calculations with Susskind and Wilson fermions in the fundamental-adjoint plane

We report the results of hadron mass calculations in the valence (quenched) approximation, on an 8³ × 16 lattice. For Wilson fermions with the standard Wilson action we find good agreement with results form the hopping parameter expansion on a 16⁴ lattice at β = 5.7, with only a small finite size effect in the anticipated direction. The proton-to-rho mass ration is however too high by 60% and the delta-proton mass difference is too small. We have repeated these calculations at two points of the same string tension in the plane of the fundamental and adjoint couplings, in an attempt to avoid the unphysical critical point there; within statistical errors the meson masses remain the same, there is an improvement in the delta-proton splitting and the proton mass decreases slightly, but not enough to produce agreement with experiment. The estimates of lines of constant string tension obtained as a preliminary to the mass calculation are in good agreement with weak coupling expansions at the larger β values and cross over towards strong coupling predictions around β = 5.7. Also, crude estimates reveal the disappearance of the specific heat peak as one moves away from the unphysical singularity. For Susskind fermions we find some measure of agreement with other results form a 10³ × 16 lattice, but large, apparently finite size, effects in the rho mass at low quark mass. Meson masses in lattice units disagree with the Wilson fermion results by as much as a factor of 2. This disagreement persists in the fundamental-adjoint plane, suggesting the importance of studying improved fermion actions. At β = 6.0, Wilson fermion results show clear finite size effects on the 8³ × 16 lattice.