67 research outputs found
Full nonperturbative QCD simulations with 2+1 flavors of improved staggered quarks
Dramatic progress has been made over the last decade in the numerical study
of quantum chromodynamics (QCD) through the use of improved formulations of QCD
on the lattice (improved actions), the development of new algorithms and the
rapid increase in computing power available to lattice gauge theorists. In this
article we describe simulations of full QCD using the improved staggered quark
formalism, ``asqtad'' fermions. These simulations were carried out with two
degenerate flavors of light quarks (up and down) and with one heavier flavor,
the strange quark. Several light quark masses, down to about 3 times the
physical light quark mass, and six lattice spacings have been used. These
enable controlled continuum and chiral extrapolations of many low energy QCD
observables. We review the improved staggered formalism, emphasizing both
advantages and drawbacks. In particular, we review the procedure for removing
unwanted staggered species in the continuum limit. We then describe the asqtad
lattice ensembles created by the MILC Collaboration. All MILC lattice ensembles
are publicly available, and they have been used extensively by a number of
lattice gauge theory groups. We review physics results obtained with them, and
discuss the impact of these results on phenomenology. Topics include the heavy
quark potential, spectrum of light hadrons, quark masses, decay constant of
light and heavy-light pseudoscalar mesons, semileptonic form factors, nucleon
structure, scattering lengths and more. We conclude with a brief look at highly
promising future prospects.Comment: 157 pages; prepared for Reviews of Modern Physics. v2: some rewriting
throughout; references update
Efficient Two-Dimensional Direction-of-Arrival Estimation for a Mixture of Circular and Noncircular Sources
In this paper, the two-dimensional (2-D) direction-of-arrival (DOA) estimation problem for a mixture of circular and noncircular sources is considered. In particular, we focus on a 2-D array structure consisting of two parallel uniform linear arrays and build a general array model with mixed circular and noncircular sources. The received array data and its conjugate counterparts are combined together to form a new data vector, based on which a series of 2-D DOA estimators is derived. Compared with existing methods, the proposed one has three main advantages. First, it can give a more accurate estimation in situations, where the number of sources is within the traditional limit of high-resolution methods. Second, it can still work effectively when the number of mixed signals is larger than that of the array elements. Finally, the paired 2-D DOAs of the proposed method can be obtained automatically without the complicated 2-D spectrum peak search and, therefore, has a much lower computational complexity
Light Hadron Masses from Lattice QCD
This article reviews lattice QCD results for the light hadron spectrum. We
give an overview of different formulations of lattice QCD, with discussions on
the fermion doubling problem and improvement programs. We summarize recent
developments in algorithms and analysis techniques, that render calculations
with light, dynamical quarks feasible on present day computer resources.
Finally, we summarize spectrum results for ground state hadrons and resonances
using various actions.Comment: 53 pages, 24 figures, one table; Rev.Mod.Phys. (published version);
v2: corrected typ
Confinement, chiral symmetry, and the lattice
Two crucial properties of QCD, confinement and chiral symmetry breaking,
cannot be understood within the context of conventional Feynman perturbation
theory. Non-perturbative phenomena enter the theory in a fundamental way at
both the classical and quantum level. Over the years a coherent qualitative
picture of the interplay between chiral symmetry, quantum mechanical anomalies,
and the lattice has emerged and is reviewed here.Comment: 126 pages, 36 figures. Revision corrects additional typos and
renumbers equations to be more consistent with the published versio
Full nonperturbative QCD simulations with 2+1 flavors of improved staggered quarks
Dramatic progress has been made over the last decade in the numerical study
of quantum chromodynamics (QCD) through the use of improved formulations of QCD
on the lattice (improved actions), the development of new algorithms and the
rapid increase in computing power available to lattice gauge theorists. In this
article we describe simulations of full QCD using the improved staggered quark
formalism, ``asqtad'' fermions. These simulations were carried out with two
degenerate flavors of light quarks (up and down) and with one heavier flavor,
the strange quark. Several light quark masses, down to about 3 times the
physical light quark mass, and six lattice spacings have been used. These
enable controlled continuum and chiral extrapolations of many low energy QCD
observables. We review the improved staggered formalism, emphasizing both
advantages and drawbacks. In particular, we review the procedure for removing
unwanted staggered species in the continuum limit. We then describe the asqtad
lattice ensembles created by the MILC Collaboration. All MILC lattice ensembles
are publicly available, and they have been used extensively by a number of
lattice gauge theory groups. We review physics results obtained with them, and
discuss the impact of these results on phenomenology. Topics include the heavy
quark potential, spectrum of light hadrons, quark masses, decay constant of
light and heavy-light pseudoscalar mesons, semileptonic form factors, nucleon
structure, scattering lengths and more. We conclude with a brief look at highly
promising future prospects.Comment: 157 pages; prepared for Reviews of Modern Physics. v2: some rewriting
throughout; references update
Theoretical and Computational Aspects of New Lattice Fermion Formulations
In this work we investigate theoretical and computational aspects of novel
lattice fermion formulations for the simulation of lattice gauge theories. The
lattice approach to quantum gauge theories is an important tool for studying
quantum chromodynamics, where it is the only known framework for calculating
physical observables from first principles. In our investigations we focus on
staggered Wilson fermions and the related staggered domain wall and staggered
overlap formulations. Originally proposed by Adams, these new fermion
discretizations bear the potential to reduce the computational costs of
state-of-the-art Monte Carlo simulations. Staggered Wilson fermions combine
aspects of both staggered and Wilson fermions while having a reduced number of
fermion doublers compared to usual staggered fermions. Moreover, they can be
used as a kernel operator for the domain wall fermion construction with
potentially significantly improved chiral properties and for the overlap
operator with its exact chiral symmetry. This allows the implementation of
chirality on the lattice in a controlled manner at potentially significantly
reduced costs. The practical potential and limitations of these new lattice
fermions are also critically discussed.Comment: PhD thesis (Nanyang Technological University, 2016), 160 pages;
includes unpublished results and extended discussions of studies previously
presented in arXiv:1609.05114, arXiv:1602.08432, arXiv:1312.7230 and
arXiv:1312.326
High-resolution Direction-of-Arrival estimation
Direction of Arrival (DOA) estimation is considered one of the most crucial problems in array signal processing, with considerable research efforts for developing efficient and effective direction-finding algorithms, especially in the transportation industry, where the demand for an effective, real-time, and accurate DOA algorithm is increasing. However, challenges must be addressed before real-world deployment can be realised. Firstly, there is the requirement for fast computational time for real-time detection. Secondly, there is a demand for high-resolution and accurate DOA estimation.
In this thesis, two state-of-the-art DOA estimation algorithms are proposed and evaluated to address the challenges. Firstly, a novel covariance matrix reconstruction approach for single snapshot DOA estimation (CbSS) was proposed. CbSS was developed by exploiting the relationship between the theoretical and sample covariance matrices to reduce estimation error for a single snapshot scenario. CbSS can resolve accurate DOAs without requiring lengthy peak searching computational time by computationally changing the received sample covariance matrix. Simulation results have verified that the CbSS technique yields the highest DOA estimation accuracy by up to 25.5% compared to existing methods such as root-MUSIC and the Partial Relaxation approach. Furthermore, CbSS presents negligible bias when compared to the existing techniques in a wide range of scenarios, such as in multiple uncorrelated and coherent signal source environments.
Secondly, an adaptive diagonal-loading technique was proposed to improve DOA estimation accuracy without requiring a high computational load by integrating a modified novel and adaptive diagonal-loading method (DLT-DOA) to further improve estimation accuracy. An in-depth simulation performance analysis was conducted to address the challenges, with a comparison against existing state-of-the-art DOA estimation techniques such as EPUMA and MODEX. Simulation results verify that the DLT-DOA technique performs up to 8.5% higher DOA estimation performance in terms of estimation accuracy compared to existing methods with significantly lower computational time.
On this basis, the two novel DOA estimation techniques are recommended for usage in real-world scenarios where fast computational time and high estimation accuracy are expected. Further research is needed to identify other factors that could further optimize the algorithms to meet different demands
Nuclear Physics from Lattice QCD
We review recent progress toward establishing lattice Quantum Chromodynamics
as a predictive calculational framework for nuclear physics. A survey of the
current techniques that are used to extract low-energy hadronic scattering
amplitudes and interactions is followed by a review of recent two-body and
few-body calculations by the NPLQCD collaboration and others. An outline of the
nuclear physics that is expected to be accomplished with Lattice QCD in the
next decade, along with estimates of the required computational resources, is
presented.Comment: 56 pages, 39 pdf figures. Final published versio
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