We examine the eigenvalues and eigenvectors of the staggered Dirac operator on thermal ensembles created in QCD with two flavours of staggered quarks. We see that across the phase transition a gap opens in the spectrum. For finite volume lattices in the low-temperature phase the eigenvectors are extended, but generic field configurations in the high temperature phase give rise to localized eigenstates. We examine measures of the stability of such localization and find that at finite volumes localization occurs through Mott's mechanism of the formation of mobility edges. However, the band gap between the localized and extended states seem to scale to zero in the limit of large volume.
Complete spectra of the staggered Dirac operator $\Dirac$ are determined in four-dimensional $SU(2)$ gauge fields with and without dynamical fermions. An attempt is made to relate the performance of multigrid and conjugate gradient algorithms for propagators with the distribution of the eigenvalues of~$\Dirac$.
We examine the taste structure of eigenvectors of the staggered-fermion Dirac operator. We derive a set of conditions on the eigenvectors of modes with small eigenvalues (near-zero modes), such that staggered fermions reproduce the 't Hooft vertex in the continuum limit. We also show that, assuming these conditions, the correlators of flavor-singlet mesons are free of contributions singular in $1/m$, where $m$ is the quark mass. This conclusion holds also when a single flavor of sea quark is represented by the fourth root of the staggered-fermion determinant. We then test numerically, using th…
We have constructed the lowest few eigenvectors of the staggered Dirac operator on SU(3) gauge configurations, both quenched and dynamical. We use these modes to study the topological charge and to construct approximate hadronic correlators.
We classify SU(3) gauge field configurations in different topological sectors by the smearing technique. In each sector we compute the distribution of low lying eigenvalues of the staggered Dirac operator. In all sectors we find perfect agreement with the predictions for the sector of topological charge zero. The smallest Dirac operator eigenvalues of staggered fermions at presently realistic lattice couplings are thus insensitive to gauge field topology. On the smeared configurations, $4ν$ eigenvalues go to zero in agreement with the index theorem.
We represent the Polyakov loop correlator as a spectral sum of correlators of eigenvectors of the lattice Dirac operator. This spectral representation is studied numerically using quenched SU(3) configurations below and above the deconfinement temperature. We analyze whether the individual Dirac eigenvector correlators differ in the confined and deconfined phases. The decay properties of the normalized Dirac eigenvector correlators turn out to be essentially identical in the two phases, but the amplitudes change. This change of the amplitudes shifts the relative contributions of the individual…
The low-lying spectrum of the Dirac operator is predicted to be universal, within three classes, depending on symmetry properties specified according to random matrix theory. The three universal classes are the orthogonal, unitary and symplectic ensemble. Lattice gauge theory with staggered fermions has verified two of the cases so far, unitary and symplectic, with staggered fermions in the fundamental representation of SU(3) and SU(2). We verify the missing case here, namely orthogonal, with staggered fermions in the adjoint representation of SU(N_c), N_c=2, 3.
We compare the lower edge spectral fluctuations of the staggered lattice Dirac operator for the Schwinger model with the predictions of chiral Random Matrix Theory (chRMT). We verify their range of applicability, checking in particular the role of non-trivial topological sectors and the flavor symmetry of the staggered fermions for finite lattice spacing. Approaching the continuum limit we indeed find clear signals for topological modes in the eigenvalue spectrum. These findings indicate problems in the verification of the chRMT predictions.
Evaluation of the continuum limit of the axial anomaly and index is sketched for the staggered overlap Dirac operator. There are new complications compared to the usual overlap case due to the distribution of the spin and flavor components around lattice hypercubes in the staggered formalism. The index is found to correctly reproduce the continuum index, but for the axial anomaly this is only true after averaging over the sites of a lattice hypercube.
We study the chirality of staggered quarks on the Dirac eigenvalue spectrum using deep learning (DL) techniques. The Kluberg-Stern method to construct staggered bilinear operators conserves continuum property such as recursion relations, uniqueness of chirality, and Ward identities, which leads to a unique and characteristic pattern (we call it "leakage pattern (LP)") in the matrix elements of the chirality operator sandwiched between two quark eigenstates of staggered Dirac operator. DL analysis gives $99.4(2)\%$ accuracy on normal gauge configurations and $0.998$ AUC (Area Under ROC Curve) f…
We compare the low-lying spectrum of the staggered Dirac operator in the confining phase of compact U(1) gauge theory on the lattice to predictions of chiral random matrix theory. The small eigenvalues contribute to the chiral condensate similar as for the SU(2) and SU(3) gauge groups. Agreement with the chiral unitary ensemble is observed below the Thouless energy, which is extracted from the data and found to scale with the lattice size according to theoretical predictions.
Complete spectra of the staggered Dirac operator $\Dirac$ are determined in quenched four-dimensional $SU(2)$ gauge fields, and also in the presence of dynamical fermions. Periodic as well as antiperiodic boundary conditions are used. An attempt is made to relate the performance of multigrid (MG) and conjugate gradient (CG) algorithms for propagators with the distribution of the eigenvalues of~$\Dirac$. The convergence of the CG algorithm is determined only by the condition number~$κ$ and by the lattice size. Since~$κ$'s do not vary significantly when quarks become dynamic, CG convergence in u…
We analyze the eigenvalues and eigenvectors of the staggered Dirac operator in quenched lattice QCD in the vicinity of the deconfinement phase transition using the Lüscher-Weisz gauge action. The spectral and localization properties of the low-lying eigenmodes show characteristic differences between the Z_3 sectors above the critical temperature T_c. These findings can be interpreted in terms of calorons.
Current dynamical overlap fermion hybrid Monte Carlo simulations encounter large fermionic forces when there is mixing between near zero-eigenvectors of the kernel operator. This leads to low acceptance rates when there is a large density of near zero eigenvectors. I present a method where these large forces are eliminated and the large action jumps seen when two eigenvectors approach zero are significantly reduced. This significantly increases the stability of the algorithm, and allows the use of larger integration time steps.
Recently, random matrix theory predictions for the distribution of low-lying Dirac operator eigenvalues have been extended to include lattice effects for both staggered and Wilson fermions. We computed low-lying eigenvalues for the Hermitian Wilson-Dirac operator and for improved staggered fermions on several quenched ensembles with size $\approx 1.5$ fm. Comparisons to the expectations from RMT with lattice effects included are made. Wilson RMT describes our Wilson data nicely. For improved staggered fermions we find strong indications that taste breaking effects on the low-lying spectrum dis…
We investigate the eigenvalues and eigenvectors of the staggered Dirac operator in the vicinity of the chiral phase transition of quenched SU(3) lattice gauge theory. We consider both the global features of the spectrum and the local correlations. In the chirally symmetric phase, the local correlations in the bulk of the spectrum are still described by random matrix theory, and we investigate the dependence of the bulk Thouless energy on the simulation parameters. At and above the critical point, the properties of the low-lying Dirac eigenvalues depend on the $Z_3$-phase of the Polyakov loop. …
We investigate and clarify the role of topology and the issues surrounding the epsilon regime for staggered quarks. We study unimproved and improved staggered quark Dirac operators on quenched lattice QCD gluon backgrounds generated using a Symanzik-improved gluon action. For the improved Dirac operators we find a clear separation of the spectrum into would-be zero modes and others. The number of would-be zero modes depends on the topological charge as predicted by the continuum Index Theorem, and the expectation values of their chirality are large for the most improved actions (approx 0.7). T…
We present a random matrix theory (RMT) for the staggered lattice QCD Dirac operator. The staggered RMT is equivalent to the zero-momentum limit of the staggered chiral Lagrangian and includes all taste breaking terms at their leading order. This is an extension of previous work which only included some of the taste breaking terms. We will also present some results for the taste breaking contributions to the partition function and the Dirac eigenvalues.
We investigate numerically the spectral flow introduced by Adams for the staggered Dirac operator on realistic gauge configurations. We study both the unimproved and the HISQ Dirac operators. We compare the spectral flow index with the index obtained by identifying low-lying modes of large chirality.
We investigate numerically the spectral flow introduced by Adams for the staggered Dirac operator on realistic (quenched) gauge configurations. We obtain clear numerical evidence that the definition works as expected: there is a clear separation between crossings near and far away from the origin, and the topological charge defined through the crossings near the origin agrees, for most configurations, with the one defined through the near-zero modes of large taste-singlet chirality of the staggered Dirac operator. The crossings are much closer to the origin if we improve the Dirac operator use…
We extend the spectral projectors method to staggered fermions. Applying the index theorem to the staggered Dirac operator it is possible to work out an expression for the topological susceptibility which depends only on the orthogonal projectors on quasi zero-modes, as it has already been done for Dirac-Wilson fermions. Besides, we generalize this method deriving analogous expressions for all higher-order coefficients in the $θ$-expansion of the vacuum energy.
Based on a large number of smearing steps, we classify SU(3) gauge field configurations in different topological sectors. For each sector we compare the exact analytical predictions for the microscopic Dirac operator spectrum of quenched staggered fermions. In all sectors we find perfect agreement with the predictions for the sector of topological charge zero, showing explicitly that the smallest Dirac operator eigenvalues of staggered fermions at presently realistic lattice couplings are insensitive to gauge field topology. On the smeared configurations, $4ν$ eigenvalues clearly separate out …
We investigate the spectrum of the staggered Dirac operator in 4d quenched U(1) lattice gauge theory and its relationship to random matrix theory. In the confined as well as in the Coulomb phase the nearest-neighbor spacing distribution of the unfolded eigenvalues is well described by the chiral unitary ensemble. The same is true for the distribution of the smallest eigenvalue and the microscopic spectral density in the confined phase. The physical origin of the chiral condensate in this phase deserves further study.
Lattice fermion actions are constructed with path integrals which are equivalent to the free one-flavour staggered fermion determinant. The Dirac operators used are local and have an identical spectrum of states to the staggered theory. Operators obeying a generalised Ginsparg-Wilson relation are developed.
We study chiral properties of eigenvalue spectrum for staggered quarks. We present a new method to identify would-be zero modes and nonzero modes using their symmetry and chiral properties. Here, we review the traditional method with HYP improved staggered quarks, and extend it to a completely new method which uses the chiral Ward identities and leakage patterns to achieve the goal.
The numerical properties of staggered Dirac operators with a taste-dependent mass term proposed by Adams [1,2] and by Hoelbling [3] are compared with those of ordinary staggered and Wilson Dirac operators. In the free limit and on (quenched) interacting configurations, we consider their topological properties, their spectrum, and the resulting pion mass. Although we also consider the spectral structure, topological properties, locality, and computational cost of an overlap operator with a staggered kernel, we call attention to the possibility of using the Adams and Hoelbling operators without …
We investigate general properties of the eigenvalue spectrum for improved staggered quarks. We introduce a new chirality operator $[γ_5 \otimes 1]$ and a new shift operator $[1 \otimes ξ_5]$, which respect the same recursion relation as the $γ_5$ operator in the continuum. Then we show that matrix elements of the chirality operator sandwiched between two eigenstates of the staggered Dirac operator are related to those of the shift operator by the Ward identity of the conserved $U(1)_A$ symmetry of staggered fermion actions. We perform a numerical study in quenched QCD using HYP staggered quark…
Critical slowing down in Krylov methods for the Dirac operator presents a major obstacle to further advances in lattice field theory as it approaches the continuum solution. Here we formulate a multi-grid algorithm for the Kogut-Susskind (or staggered) fermion discretization which has proven difficult relative to Wilson multigrid due to its first-order anti-Hermitian structure. The solution is to introduce a novel spectral transformation by the Kähler-Dirac spin structure prior to the Galerkin projection. We present numerical results for the two-dimensional, two-flavor Schwinger model, however…
We present a new staggered discretization of the Dirac operator. In comparison with standard staggered fermions, real and imaginary parts are located in different nodes. Doubling gives only a doublet of Dirac fermions which we propose to interpret as a physical (lepton or quark) doublet. Contrary to usual staggered fermions, we have no exact chiral symmetry but obtain a generalization of the Ginsparg-Wilson relation.
Results on the computational efficiency of 2-flavor staggered Wilson fermions compared to usual Wilson fermions in a quenched lattice QCD simulation on $16^3\times32$ lattice at $β=6$ are reported. We compare the cost of inverting the Dirac matrix on a source by the conjugate gradient (CG) method for both of these fermion formulations, at the same pion masses, and without preconditioning. We find that the number of CG iterations required for convergence, averaged over the ensemble, is less by a factor of almost 2 for staggered Wilson fermions, with only a mild dependence on the pion mass. We a…
A generalized anti-hermitian staggered Dirac operator is formulated. Its relation with noncommutative geometry is briefly reviewed. Once this anti-hermitian operator is modified to be ``$γ^5$-hermitian'', it will provide a new solution to Ginsparg-Wilson relation, basing on an abstract algebraic analysis of Neuberger's overlap construction and a redefinition of chirality.
In the dilute instanton gas model of the QCD vacuum, one expects a strong spatial correlation between chirality and the maxima of the Dirac eigenvectors with small eigenvalues. Following Horvath, {\it et al.} we examine this question using lattice gauge theory within the quenched approximation. We extend the work of those authors by using weaker coupling, $β=6.0$, larger lattices, $16^4$, and an improved fermion formulation, domain wall fermions. In contrast with this earlier work, we find a striking correlation between the magnitude of the chirality density, $|ψ^\dagger(x)γ^5ψ(x)|$, and the n…
Consistency of present-day lattice QCD simulations with dynamical (``sea'') staggered fermions requires that the determinant of the staggered-fermion Dirac operator, $det(D)$, be equal to $det^4(D_{rg}) det(T)$ where $D_{rg}$ is a local one-flavor lattice Dirac operator, and $T$ is a local operator containing only excitations with masses of the order of the cutoff. Using renormalization-group (RG) block transformations I show that, in the limit of infinitely many RG steps, the required decomposition exists for the free staggered operator in the ``flavor representation.'' The resulting one-flav…
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…
We present results of the eigenvalue spectrum for the staggered Diräc operator obtained using a modified Lanczos algorithm. We identify zero modes and non-zero modes. We derive the chiral Ward identity derived from the conserved $U(1)_A$ symmetry, and check it numerically. This is the first step toward construction of an improved method to identify zero modes reliably with staggered fermions.
Recently, Kalkreuter obtained complete Dirac spectra for $SU(2)$ lattice gauge theory both for staggered fermions and for Wilson fermions. The lattice size was as large as $12^4$. We performed a statistical analysis of these data and found that the eigenvalue correlations can be described by the Gaussian Symplectic Ensemble for staggered fermions and by the Gaussian Orthogonal Ensemble for Wilson fermions. In both cases long range spectral fluctuations are strongly suppressed: the variance of a sequence of levels containing $n$ eigenvalues on average is given by $Σ_2(n) \sim 2 (\log n)/βπ^2 $ …
We study the infrared part of the spectrum for UV-filtered staggered Dirac operators and compare them to the overlap counterpart. With sufficient filtering and at small enough lattice spacing the staggered spectra manage to ``mimic'' the overlap version. They show a 4-fold near-degeneracy, and a clear separation between would-be zero modes and non-zero modes. This suggests an approximate index theorem for filtered staggered fermions and a correct sensitivity to the topology of QCD. Moreover, it supports square-rooting the staggered determinant to obtain dynamical ensembles with $N_f=2$.
We measure the low lying eigenmodes of an overlap Dirac operator on 2--flavor staggered configurations. By comparing the eigenmode distribution to the predictions of Random Matrix Theory we test to what accuracy staggered configurations describe continuum QCD. The agreement between the numerical data and RMT implies that at our quark mass values the lattice artifacts of the staggered configurations are comparable to overlap configurations. We identify the overlap valence mass that best matches the staggered sea quarks and predict the value of the infinite volume 2-flavor chiral condensate.
We perform a comparative study of the infrared properties of overlap and staggered fermions in QCD. We observe that the infrared spectrum of the APE/HYP improved staggered Dirac operator develops a four-fold near-degeneracy and is in quantitative agreement with the infrared spectrum of the overlap operator. The near-degeneracy allows us to identify the zero modes of the staggered operator and we find that the number of zero modes is in line with the topological index of the overlap operator.
An exploratory study of the low-lying eigenvalues of the Wilson-Dirac operator and their corresonding eigenvectors is presented. Results for the eigenvalues from quenched and unquenched simulations are discussed. The eigenvectors are studied with respect to their localization properties in the quenched approximation for the cases of SU(2) and SU(3).
To obtain a light mode in two-dimensional staggered fermions, we introduce four new local operators keeping the rotational invariance for a staggered Dirac operator. To split masses of tastes, three cases are considered. The mass matrix and the propagator for free theories are analyzed. We find that one of three cases is a good candidate for taking a single mode by the mass splitting. In the case, it is possible that a heavy mode obtains infinite mass on even sites or odd sites.
We analyze the localization properties for eigenvectors of the Dirac operator in quenched lattice QCD in the vicinity of the deconfinement phase transition. Studying the characteristic differences between the Z_3 sectors above the critical temperature T_c, we find indications for the presence of calorons.
A Dirac choice for the averaging kernel $C$ is implemented numerically. This improved kernel will be needed in gauge covariant multigrid computations for propagators of staggered fermions. Results for $C$ and the variational coarse grid operator will be given in 2-$d$ $SU(2)$ gauge fields. C++ is advocated for future algorithm development.
We study the effects of improvement on the locality of square-rooted staggered Dirac operators in lattice QCD simulations. We find the localisation lengths of the improved operators (FAT7TAD and ASQTAD) to be very similar to that of the one-link operator studied by Bunk et al., being at least the Compton wavelength of the lightest particle in the theory, even in the continuum limit. We conclude that improvement has no effect. We discuss the implications of this result for the locality of the nth-rooted fermion determinant used to reduce the number of sea quark flavours, and for possible stagge…
Differential structure of a d-dimensional lattice, which is essentially a noncommutative exterior algebra, is defined using reductions in first order and second order of universal differential calculus in the context of noncommutative geometry (NCG) developed by Dimakis et al. This differential structure can be realized adopting a Dirac-Connes operator proposed by us recently within Connes' NCG. With matrix representations being specified, our Dirac-Connes operator corresponds to staggered Dirac operator, in the case that dimension of the lattice equals to 1, 2 and 4.
We have computed the eta-prime pseudoscalar octet mass splitting using staggered fermions on both dynamical and quenched gauge configurations. We have used Wuppertal smeared operators to reduce excited state contributions. We compare our results with the theoretical forms predicted by partially quenched chiral perturbation theory in the lowest order. Using lattice volumes of size 16^3 x 32 with a^{-1}=2GeV we obtain results consistent with the physical eta-prime mass. We also demonstrate that the flavor singlet piece of the eta-prime mass comes from zero modes of the Dirac operator.
Measurements of the lowest-lying eigenvalues of the staggered fermion Dirac operator are made on ensembles of equilibrium gauge field configurations in quenched SU(3) lattice gauge theory. The results are compared with exact analytical predictions in the microscopic finite-volume scaling regime.
We follow up on a suggestion by Adams and construct explicit domain wall fermion operators with staggered kernels. We compare different domain wall formulations, namely the standard construction as well as Borici's modified and Chiu's optimal construction, utilizing both Wilson and staggered kernels. In the process, we generalize the staggered kernels to arbitrary even dimensions and introduce both truncated and optimal staggered domain wall fermions. Some numerical investigations are carried out in the (1+1)-dimensional setting of the Schwinger model, where we explore spectral properties of t…
We show that the lowest part of the eigenvalue density of the staggered fermion operator in lattice QCD_3 at small lattice coupling constant beta has exactly the same shape as in QCD_4. This observation is quite surprising, since universal properties of the QCD_3 Dirac operator are expected to be described by a non-chiral matrix model. We show that this effect is related to the specific nature of the staggered fermion discretization and that the eigenvalue density evolves towards the non-chiral random matrix prediction when beta is increased and the continuum limit is approached. We propose a …
The probability density of low-lying eigenvectors of the hermitian Wilson-Dirac operator is examined. Comparisons in position and size between eigenvectors, topological charge and action density are made. We do this for standard Monte-Carlo generated SU(3) background fields and for single instanton background fields. Both hot and cooled SU(3) background fields are considered. An instanton model is fitted to eigenmodes and topological charge density and the sizes and positions of these are compared.
Aiming at the link between confinement and chiral symmetry the Polyakov loop represented as a spectral sum of eigenvalues of the Dirac operator was subject of recent studies. We analyze the volume dependence as well as the continuum behavior of this quantity for quenched QCD using staggered fermions. Furthermore, we present first results using dynamical configurations.
We investigate the eigenvalue spectrum of the staggered Dirac matrix in full QCD with two colors and finite chemical potential. Along the strong-coupling axis up to the temperature phase transition, the low-lying Dirac spectrum is well described by random matrix theory (RMT) and exhibits universal behavior. The situation is discussed in the chirally symmetric phase and no universality is seen for the microscopic spectral density.
We consider the local chirality of near-zero eigenvectors from Wilson-Dirac and clover improved Wilson-Dirac lattice operators as proposed recently by Horváth et al. We studied finer lattices and repaired for the loss of orthogonality due to the non-normality of the Wilson-Dirac matrix. As a result we do see a clear double peak structure on lattices with resolutions higher than 0.1 fm. We found that the lattice artifacts can be considerably reduced by exploiting the biorthogonal system of left and right eigenvectors. We conclude that the dominance of instantons on topological charge fluctuatio…
We consider $4d$ compact lattice QED in the quenched approximation. First, we briefly summarize the spectrum of the staggered Dirac operator and its connection with random matrix theory. Afterwards we present results for the low-lying eigenmodes of the Neuberger overlap-Dirac operator. In the strong coupling phase we find exact zero-modes. Subsequently we discuss possibly related topological excitations of the U(1) lattice gauge theory.
The spectral flow of the low-lying eigenvalues of the improved and unimproved Wilson-Dirac operator is studied on instanton-like configurations and on thermalized quenched configurations at various $β$-values and lattice sizes. We also investigate the space-time localisation and chirality of the corresponding eigenvectors.
