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

Chiral symmetry in the 2-flavour lattice Schwinger model

We study the 2-flavour lattice Schwinger model: QED in D=2 with two fermion species of identical mass. In the simulation we are using Wilson fermions where chiral symmetry is explicitly broken. Since there is no known simple order parameter it is non-trivial to identify the critical line of the chiral phase transition. We therefore need to find observables which allow an identification of a possible restoration of chiral symmetry. We utilize the PCAC-relations in order to identify the critical coupling, where chiral symmetry is restored.Comment: 3 pages (LaTeX), 4 figures (EPS

The Consequences of Non-Normality

The non-normality of Wilson-type lattice Dirac operators has important consequences - the application of the usual concepts from the textbook (hermitian) quantum mechanics should be reconsidered. This includes an appropriate definition of observables and the refinement of computational tools. We show that the truncated singular value expansion is the optimal approximation to the inverse operator D^{-1} and we prove that due to the gamma_5-hermiticity it is equivalent to gamma_5 times the truncated eigenmode expansion of the hermitian Wilson-Dirac operator