Quantitative comparison of filtering methods in lattice QCD

We systematically compare filtering methods used to extract topological excitations (like instantons, calorons, monopoles and vortices) from lattice gauge configurations, namely APE-smearing and spectral decompositions based on lattice Dirac and Laplace operators. Each of these techniques introduces ambiguities, which can invalidate the interpretation of the results. We show, however, that all these methods, when handled with care, reveal very similar topological structures. Hence, these common structures are free of ambiguities and faithfully represent infrared degrees of freedom in the QCD vacuum. As an application we discuss an interesting power-law for the clusters of filtered topological charge.Comment: 6 pages, 18 plots in 5 figures; final version as published in EPJ A; section 4 was adde

Rest-to-Rest Trajectory Planning for Underactuated Cable-Driven Parallel Robots

This article studies the trajectory planning for underactuated cable-driven parallel robots (CDPRs) in the case of rest-to-rest motions, when both the motion time and the path geometry are prescribed. For underactuated manipulators, it is possible to prescribe a control law only for a subset of the generalized coordinates of the system. However, if an arbitrary trajectory is prescribed for a suitable subset of these coordinates, the constraint deficiency on the end-effector leads to the impossibility of bringing the system at rest in a prescribed time. In addition, the behavior of the system may not be stable, that is, unbounded oscillatory motions of the end-effector may arise. In this article, we propose a novel trajectory-planning technique that allows the end effector to track a constrained geometric path in a specified time, and allows it to transition between stable static poses. The design of such a motion is based on the solution of a boundary value problem, aimed at a finding solution to the differential equations of motion with constraints on position and velocity at start and end times. To prove the effectiveness of such a method, the trajectory planning of a six-degrees-of-freedom spatial CDPR suspended by three cables is investigated. Trajectories of a reference point on the moving platform are designed so as to ensure that the assigned path is tracked accurately, and the system is brought to a static condition in a prescribed time. Experimental validation is presented and discussed

Calorons with non-trivial holonomy on and off the lattice

We discuss recent solutions for SU(2) calorons with non-trivial holonomy at higher charge, both through analytic means and using cooling, as well as extensive lattice studies for SU(3).Comment: 12 pages, 16 figures in 34 parts, 4 talks presented at Lattice 2004(topology

Probing for Instanton Quarks with epsilon-Cooling

We use epsilon-cooling, adjusting at will the order a^2 corrections to the lattice action, to study the parameter space of instantons in the background of non-trivial holonomy and to determine the presence and nature of constituents with fractional topological charge at finite and zero temperature for SU(2). As an additional tool, zero temperature configurations were generated from those at finite temperature with well-separated constituents. This is achieved by "adiabatically" adjusting the anisotropic coupling used to implement finite temperature on a symmetric lattice. The action and topological charge density, as well as the Polyakov loop and chiral zero-modes are used to analyse these configurations. We also show how cooling histories themselves can reveal the presence of constituents with fractional topological charge. We comment on the interpretation of recent fermion zero-mode studies for thermalized ensembles at small temperatures.Comment: 26 pages, 14 figures in 33 part

Improved superposition schemes for approximate multi-caloron configurations

Two improved superposition schemes for the construction of approximate multi-caloron-anticaloron configurations, using exact single (anti)caloron gauge fields as underlying building blocks, are introduced in this paper. The first improvement deals with possible monopole-Dirac string interactions between different calorons with non-trivial holonomy. The second one, based on the ADHM formalism, improves the (anti-)selfduality in the case of small caloron separations. It conforms with Shuryak's well-known ratio-ansatz when applied to instantons. Both superposition techniques provide a higher degree of (anti-)selfduality than the widely used sum-ansatz, which simply adds the (anti)caloron vector potentials in an appropriate gauge. Furthermore, the improved configurations (when discretized onto a lattice) are characterized by a higher stability when they are exposed to lattice cooling techniques.Comment: New version accepted for publication in Nucl. Phys. B. Text partly shortened, changes in the introduction, new results added on the comparison with exact solution

Calorons, Nahm's equations on S^1 and bundles over P^1xP^1

The moduli space of solutions to Nahm's equations of rank (k,k+j) on the circle, and hence, of SU(2) calorons of charge (k,j), is shown to be equivalent to the moduli of holomorphic rank 2 bundles on P^1xP^1 trivialized at infinity with c_2=k and equipped with a flag of degree j along P^1x{0}. An explicit matrix description of these spaces is given by a monad constructio

An SU(2) KvBLL caloron gas model and confinement

A semi-classical model is developed to describe pure SU(2) Yang-Mills gluodynamics at finite temperature as a dilute, non-interacting gas of Kraan-van Baal-Lee-Lu calorons including the case of non-trivial holonomy. Temperature dependent parameters of the model (asymptotic caloron holonomy, caloron density and caloron size distribution) are discussed from the point of view of lattice observations and of in-medium modifications of the one-loop caloron amplitude. Space-like string tensions running into plateaux at distances R \approx 0.8 - 1.3 fm are obtained and compared to lattice results in order to find more precisely the average caloron size. Then, the quark-antiquark free energy as predicted by the model is considered. In the confined phase a linear rise with the separation can be observed up to R \approx 4 fm, whereas it runs into plateaux above T_c. Screening effects in the adjoint potentials are observed together with an approximate Casimir scaling of the caloron contribution to the fundamental and adjoint forces. In Abelian projection, space-like percolation of monopoles is found in the confined phase only. Thus, taking the non-trivial holonomy into account, confinement properties of pure SU(2) Yang-Mills gluodynamics can be described by a semi-classical approach up to distances one order of magnitude larger than the caloron size.Comment: 26 pages, 14 figures, textheight change

Polyakov loops and spectral properties of the staggered Dirac operator

We study the spectrum of the staggered Dirac operator in SU(2) gauge fields close to the free limit, for both the fundamental and the adjoint representation. Numerically we find a characteristic cluster structure with spacings of adjacent levels separating into three scales. We derive an analytical formula which explains the emergence of these different spectral scales. The behavior on the two coarser scales is determined by the lattice geometry and the Polyakov loops, respectively. Furthermore, we analyze the spectral statistics on all three scales, comparing to predictions from random matrix theory.Comment: 11 pages, 25 figures; v2: minor changes, as published in Phys. Rev.

Decomposition of meron configuration of SU(2) gauge field

For the meron configuration of the SU(2) gauge field in the four dimensional Minkowskii spacetime, the decomposition into an isovector field \bn, isoscalar fields $\rho$ and $\sigma$, and a U(1) gauge field $C_{\mu}$ is attained by solving the consistency condition for \bn. The resulting \bn turns out to possess two singular points, behave like a monopole-antimonopole pair and reduce to the conventional hedgehog in a special case. The $C_{\mu}$ field also possesses singular points, while $\rho$ and $\sigma$ are regular everywhere.Comment: 18 pages, 5 figures, Sec.4 rewritten. 5 refs. adde

2+1 Dimensional Georgi-Glashow Instantons in Weyl Gauge

Semiclassical instanton solutions in the 3D SU(2) Georgi-Glashow model are transformed into the Weyl gauge. This illustrates the tunneling interpretation of these instantons and provides a smooth regularization of the singular unitary gauge. The 3D Georgi-Glashow model has both instanton and sphaleron solutions, in contrast to 3D Yang-Mills theory which has neither, and 4D Yang-Mills theory which has instantons but no sphaleron, and 4D electroweak theory which has a sphaleron but no instantons. We also discuss the spectral flow picture of fundamental fermions in a Georgi-Glashow instanton background.Comment: 22 pages, 8 figures, revtex4; v2 - references and comments adde