FLIC-Overlap Fermions and Topology

APE smearing the links in the irrelevant operators of clover fermions (Fat-Link Irrelevant Clover (FLIC) fermions) provides significant improvement in the condition number of the Hermitian-Dirac operator and gives rise to a factor of two savings in computing the overlap operator. This report investigates the effects of using a highly-improved definition of the lattice field-strength tensor F_mu_nu in the fermion action, made possible through the use of APE-smeared fat links in the construction of the irrelevant operators. Spurious double-zero crossings in the spectral flow of the Hermitian-Wilson Dirac operator associated with lattice artifacts at the scale of the lattice spacing are removed with FLIC fermions composed with an O(a^4)-improved lattice field strength tensor. Hence, FLIC-Overlap fermions provide an additional benefit to the overlap formalism: a correct realization of topology in the fermion sector on the lattice.Comment: Lattice2002(chiral

Hybrid and Exotic Mesons from FLIC Fermions

The spectral properties of hybrid meson interpolating fields are investigated. The quantum numbers of the meson are carried by smeared-source fermion operators and highly-improved chromo-electric and -magnetic field operators composed with APE-smeared links. The effective masses of standard and hybrid operators indicate that the ground state meson is effectively isolated using both standard and hybrid interpolating fields. Focus is placed on interpolating fields in which the large spinor components of the quark and antiquark fields are merged. In particular, the effective mass of the exotic $1^{-+}$ meson is reported. Further, we port some values for excited mesonic states using a variational process.Comment: 3 Pages, 3 figures, Lattice2003(Spectrum

Cooling for instantons and the Wrath of Nahm

The dynamics of instantons and anti-instantons in lattice QCD can be studied by analysing the action and topological charge of configurations as they approach a self-dual or anti-self-dual state, i.e. a state in which S/S_0=|Q|. We use cooling to reveal the semi-classical structure of the configurations we study. Improved actions which eliminate discretization errors up to and including O(a^4) are used to stabilise instantons as we cool for several thousand sweeps. An analogously improved lattice version of the continuum field-strength tensor is used to construct a topological charge free from O(a^4) discretization errors. Values of the action and topological charge obtained with these improved operators approach mutually-consistent integer values to within a few parts in 10^4 after several hundred cooling sweeps. Analysis of configurations with |Q| \approx 1 and |Q| \approx 2 supports the hypothesis that a self-dual |Q|=1 configuration cannot exist on the 4-torus.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, talk presented at the workshop on Lattice Hadron Physics, Cairns Australia, July 200

Hybrid Meson Spectrum from the FLIC action

The spectral properties of hybrid meson interpolating fields are investigated. The quantum numbers of the meson are carried by smeared-source fermion operators and highly-improved chromo-electric and -magnetic field operators composed with APE-smeared links. The effective masses of standard and hybrid operators indicate that the ground state meson is effectively isolated using both standard and hybrid interpolating fields. Focus is placed on interpolating fields in which the large spinor components of the quark and antiquark fields are merged. In particular, the effective mass of the exotic $1^{-+}$ meson is reported. Further, we report some values for excited mesonic states using a variational process.Comment: Talk given by A.G Williams at Workshop on Lattice Hadron Physics, Cairns, Queensland, Australia, July 200

A spinor approach to Walker geometry

A four-dimensional Walker geometry is a four-dimensional manifold M with a neutral metric g and a parallel distribution of totally null two-planes. This distribution has a natural characterization as a projective spinor field subject to a certain constraint. Spinors therefore provide a natural tool for studying Walker geometry, which we exploit to draw together several themes in recent explicit studies of Walker geometry and in other work of Dunajski (2002) and Plebanski (1975) in which Walker geometry is implicit. In addition to studying local Walker geometry, we address a global question raised by the use of spinors.Comment: 41 pages. Typos which persisted into published version corrected, notably at (2.15

Prospects and challenges of concentrated solar photovoltaics and enhanced geothermal energy technologies

Reducing the total emissions of energy generation systems is a pragmatic approach for limiting the environmental pollution and associated climate change problems. Socio economic activities in the 21st century is highly determined by the energy generation mediums, particularly the renewable resources, across the world. Therefore, a thorough investigation into the technologies used in harnessing these energy generation mediums should contribute to their further advancement. Concentrated Solar Photovoltaics (CSP) and Enhanced Geothermal Energy (EGE) are considered as emerging renewable energy technologies with high potential to be used as suitable replacements for fossil products (petroleum, coal, natural gas etc.). Despite the accelerated developments in these technologies, they are still facing many challenges in terms of cost. This review paper presents a detailed background about these renewable energy technologies and their main types such as solar tower, parabolic trough, and so on. Also, the principle challenges impeding the advancement of these energy technologies into commercialisation are discussed. Possible solutions for the main challenges are presented and the future prospects for such energy generation mediums are reported

Baryon resonances from a novel fat-link fermion action

We present first results for masses of positive and negative parity excited baryons in lattice QCD using an O(a^2) improved gluon action and a Fat Link Irrelevant Clover (FLIC) fermion action in which only the irrelevant operators are constructed with fat links. The results are in agreement with earlier calculations of N^* resonances using improved actions and exhibit a clear mass splitting between the nucleon and its chiral partner, even for the Wilson fermion action. The results also indicate a splitting between the lowest J^P = 1/2^- states for the two standard nucleon interpolating fields.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, talk given by W.Melnitchouk at LHP 2001 workshop, Cairns, Australi

Light Quark Simulations With FLIC Fermions

Hadron masses are calculated in quenched lattice QCD in order to probe the scaling behavior of a novel fat-link clover fermion action in which only the irrelevant operators of the fermion action are constructed using APE-smeared links. Light quark masses corresponding to an m_pi / m_rho ratio of 0.35 are considered to assess the exceptional configuration problem of clover-fermion actions. This Fat-Link Irrelevant Clover (FLIC) fermion action provides scaling which is superior to mean-field improvement and offers advantages over nonperturbative improvement, including reduced exceptional configurations.Comment: 3 pages, 2 figures, Lattice2002(QCD Spectrum and Quark Masses

Electromagnetic Form Factors with FLIC fermions

The Fat-Link Irrelevant Clover (FLIC) fermion action provides a new form of nonperturbative O(a) improvement and allows efficient access to the light quark-mass regime. FLIC fermions enable the construction of the nonperturbatively O(a)-improved conserved vector current without the difficulties associated with the fine tuning of the improvement coefficients. The simulations are performed with an O(a^2) mean-field improved plaquette-plus-rectangle gluon action on a 20^3 x 40 lattice with a lattice spacing of 0.128 fm, enabling the first simulation of baryon form factors at light quark masses on a large volume lattice. Magnetic moments, electric charge radii and magnetic radii are extracted from these form factors, and show interesting chiral nonanalytic behavior in the light quark mass regime.Comment: Presented by J.Zanotti at the Workshop on Lattice Hadron Physics, Cairns, Australia, 2003. 7pp, 8 figure

Influences of neutron star parameters on evolutions of different types of pulsar; evolutions of anomalous X-ray pulsars, soft gamma repeaters and dim isolated thermal neutron stars on the P-\.{P} diagram

Influences of the mass, moment of inertia, rotation, absence of stability in the atmosphere and some other parameters of neutron stars on the evolution of pulsars are examined. It is shown that the locations and evolutions of soft gamma repeaters, anomalous X-ray pulsars and other types of pulsar on the period versus period derivative diagram can be explained adopting values of B$<10^{14}$ G for these objects. This approach gives the possibility to explain many properties of different types of pulsar.Comment: 18 pages, 1 figur