Improved actions and asymptotic scaling in lattice Yang-Mills theory

Improved actions in SU(2) and SU(3) lattice gauge theories are investigated with an emphasis on asymptotic scaling. A new scheme for tadpole improvement is proposed. The standard but heuristic tadpole improvement emerges from a mean field approximation from the new approach. Scaling is investigated by means of the large distance static quark potential. Both, the generic and the new tadpole scheme yield significant improvements on asymptotic scaling when compared with loop improved actions. A study of the rotational symmetry breaking terms, however, reveals that only the new improvement scheme efficiently eliminates the leading irrelevant term from the action.Comment: minor modifications, improved presentatio

Instantons, Fluxons and Open Gauge String Theory

We use the exact instanton expansion to illustrate various string characteristics of noncommutative gauge theory in two dimensions. We analyse the spectrum of the model and present some evidence in favour of Hagedorn and fractal behaviours. The decompactification limit of noncommutative torus instantons is shown to map in a very precise way, at both the classical and quantum level, onto fluxon solutions on the noncommutative plane. The weak-coupling singularities of the usual Gross-Taylor string partition function for QCD on the torus are studied in the instanton representation and its double scaling limit, appropriate for the mapping onto noncommutative gauge theory, is shown to be a generating function for the volumes of the principal moduli spaces of holomorphic differentials. The noncommutative deformation of this moduli space geometry is described and appropriate open string interpretations are proposed in terms of the fluxon expansion.Comment: 70 pages, 6 figure

Noncompact sigma-models: Large N expansion and thermodynamic limit

Noncompact SO(1,N) sigma-models are studied in terms of their large N expansion in a lattice formulation in dimensions d \geq 2. Explicit results for the spin and current two-point functions as well as for the Binder cumulant are presented to next to leading order on a finite lattice. The dynamically generated gap is negative and serves as a coupling-dependent infrared regulator which vanishes in the limit of infinite lattice size. The cancellation of infrared divergences in invariant correlation functions in this limit is nontrivial and is in d=2 demonstrated by explicit computation for the above quantities. For the Binder cumulant the thermodynamic limit is finite and is given by 2/(N+1) in the order considered. Monte Carlo simulations suggest that the remainder is small or zero. The potential implications for ``criticality'' and ``triviality'' of the theories in the SO(1,N) invariant sector are discussed.Comment: 46 pages, 2 figure

Branching Asymptotics on Manifolds with Edge

We study pseudo-differential operators on a wedge with continuous and variable discrete branching asymptotics.Comment: 54 pages, 1 figure

Bergman kernels and symplectic reduction

We generalize several recent results concerning the asymptotic expansions of Bergman kernels to the framework of geometric quantization and establish an asymptotic symplectic identification property. More precisely, we study the asymptotic expansion of the $G$-invariant Bergman kernel of the spin^c Dirac operator associated with high tensor powers of a positive line bundle on a symplectic manifold. We also develop a way to compute the coefficients of the expansion, and compute the first few of them, especially, we obtain the scalar curvature of the reduction space from the $G$-invariant Bergman kernel on the total space. These results generalize the corresponding results in the non-equivariant setting, which has played a crucial role in the recent work of Donaldson on stability of projective manifolds, to the geometric quantization setting. As another kind of application, we generalize some Toeplitz operator type properties in semi-classical analysis to the framework of geometric quantization. The method we use is inspired by Local Index Theory, especially by the analytic localization techniques developed by Bismut and Lebeau.Comment: 132 page