Wilson, fixed point and Neuberger's lattice Dirac operator for the Schwinger model

We perform a comparison between different lattice regularizations of the Dirac operator for massless fermions in the framework of the single and two flavor Schwinger model. We consider a) the Wilson-Dirac operator at the critical value of the hopping parameter; b) Neuberger's overlap operator; c) the fixed point operator. We test chiral properties of the spectrum, dispersion relations and rotational invariance of the mesonic bound state propagators.Comment: Revised version; 13 pages (LaTeX), 3 figures (EPS

Topological Charge and the Spectrum of the Fermion Matrix in Lattice-QED_2

We investigate the interplay between topological charge and the spectrum of the fermion matrix in lattice-QED_2 using analytic methods and Monte Carlo simulations with dynamical fermions. A new theorem on the spectral decomposition of the fermion matrix establishes that its real eigenvalues (and corresponding eigenvectors) play a role similar to the zero eigenvalues (zero modes) of the Dirac operator in continuous background fields. Using numerical techniques we concentrate on studying the real part of the spectrum. These results provide new insights into the behaviour of physical quantities as a function of the topological charge. In particular we discuss fermion determinant, effective action and pseudoscalar densities.Comment: 33 pages, 10 eps-figures; reference adde

Constructing Improved Overlap Fermions in QCD

We describe an explicit construction of approximate Ginsparg-Wilson fermions for QCD. We use ingredients of perfect action origin, and further elements. The spectrum of the lattice Dirac operator reveals the quality of the approximation. We focus on beta =6 for optimisation. Such fermions are intended to be inserted into the overlap formula. Hence we also test the speed of convergence under polynomial evaluation of the overlap formula.Comment: 5 pages, poster presented at Lattice 2000 (Improvement and Renormalisation

The local structure of topological charge fluctuations in QCD

We introduce the Dirac eigenmode filtering of topological charge density associated with Ginsparg-Wilson fermions as a tool to investigate the local structure of topological charge fluctuations in QCD. The resulting framework is used to demonstrate that the bulk of topological charge in QCD does not appear in the form of unit quantized lumps. This means that the mixing of "would-be" zeromodes associated with such lumps is probably not the prevalent microscopic mechanism for spontaneous chiral symmetry breaking in QCD. To characterize the coherent local behavior in topological charge density at low energy, we compute the charges contained in maximal coherent spheres enclosing non-overlapping peaks. We find a continuous distribution essentially ending at ~0.5. Finally, we study, for the first time, the overlap-operator topological-charge-density correlators and find consistency with non-positivity at nonzero physical distance. This represents a non-trivial check on the locality (in gauge paths) of the overlap Dirac operator for realistic gauge backgrounds.Comment: 3 pages, 4 figures, talk, Lattice2002(topology

Low-Dimensional Long-Range Topological Charge Structure in the QCD Vacuum

While sign-coherent 4-dimensional structures cannot dominate topological charge fluctuations in the QCD vacuum at all scales due to reflection positivity, it is possible that enhanced coherence exists over extended space-time regions of lower dimension. Using the overlap Dirac operator to calculate topological charge density, we present evidence for such structure in pure-glue SU(3) lattice gauge theory. It is found that a typical equilibrium configuration is dominated by two oppositely-charged sign-coherent connected structures (``sheets'') covering about 80% of space-time. Each sheet is built from elementary 3-d cubes connected through 2-d faces, and approximates a low-dimensional curved manifold (or possibly a fractal structure) embedded in the 4-d space. At the heart of the sheet is a ``skeleton'' formed by about 18% of the most intense space-time points organized into a global long-range structure, involving connected parts spreading over maximal possible distances. We find that the skeleton is locally 1-dimensional and propose that its geometrical properties might be relevant for understanding the possible role of topological charge fluctuations in the physics of chiral symmetry breaking.Comment: 4 pages RevTeX, 4 figures; v2: 6 pages, 5 figures, more explanations provided, figure and references added, published versio

Calorons, instantons and constituent monopoles in SU(3) lattice gauge theory

We analyze the zero-modes of the Dirac operator in quenched SU(3) gauge configurations at non-zero temperature and compare periodic and anti-periodic temporal boundary conditions for the fermions. It is demonstrated that for the different boundary conditions often the modes are localized at different space-time points and have different sizes. Our observations are consistent with patterns expected for Kraan - van Baal solutions of the classical Yang-Mills equations. These solutions consist of constituent monopoles and the zero-modes are localized on different constituents for different boundary conditions. Our findings indicate that the excitations of the QCD vacuum are more structured than simple instanton-like lumps.Comment: Remarks added. To appear in Phys. Rev.

Local Chirality of Low-Lying Dirac Eigenmodes and the Instanton Liquid Model

The reasons for using low-lying Dirac eigenmodes to probe the local structure of topological charge fluctuations in QCD are discussed, and it is pointed out that the qualitative double-peaked behavior of the local chiral orientation probability distribution in these modes is necessary, but not sufficient for dominance of instanton-like fluctuations. The results with overlap Dirac operator in Wilson gauge backgrounds at lattice spacings ranging from a~0.04 fm to a~0.12 fm are reported, and it is found that the size and density of local structures responsible for double-peaking of the distribution are in disagreement with the assumptions of the Instanton Liquid Model. More generally, our results suggest that vacuum fluctuations of topological charge are not effectively dominated by locally quantized (integer-valued) lumps in QCD.Comment: 29 pages, 13 figures; v2: minor improvements in presentation, results and conclusions unchanged, version to appear in PR