26 pages. v2: Appendix added formulating consistency conditions for Aoki-phase using microscopic spectral correlators. Stylistic improvements in main text. References added. Overall conclusion unchanged. v3: Typos fixed and references updates. Version to appear in PRD
Lattice QCD with two flavors of Wilson fermions can exhibit spontaneous breaking of flavor and parity, with the resulting "Aoki phase" characterized by the non-zero expectation value $<\barψγ_5 τ_3 ψ>\ne0$. This phenomenon can be understood using the chiral effective theory appropriate to the Symanzik effective action. Within this standard analysis, the flavor-singlet pseudoscalar expectation value vanishes: $<i \barψγ_5 ψ>=0$. A recent reanalysis has questioned this understanding, arguing that either the Aoki-phase is unphysical, or that there are additional phases in which $<i \barψγ_5 ψ>\ne0$. The reanalysis uses the properties of probability distribution functions for observables built of fermion fields and expansions in terms of the eigenvalues of the hermitian Wilson-Dirac operator. Here I show that the standard understanding of the Aoki-phase is, in fact, consistent with the approach used in the reanalysis. Furthermore, if one assumes that the standard understanding is correct, one can use the methods of the reanalysis to derive lattice generalizations of the continuum sum rules of Leutwyler and Smilga.
We argue that quenched QCD has non-trivial phase structure for negative quark mass, including the possibility of a parity-flavor breaking Aoki phase. This has implications for simulations with domain-wall or overlap fermions.
We report on a numerical reinvestigation of the Aoki phase in full lattice QCD with two flavors of unimproved Wilson fermions. For zero temperature the Aoki phase can be confirmed at inverse coupling $β=4.0$ and $β=4.3$, but not at $β=4.6$ and $β=5.0$. At non-zero temperature the Aoki phase was found to exist also at $β=4.6$.
In this letter we report on a numerical investigation of the Aoki phase in the case of finite temperature which continues our former study at zero temperature. We have performed simulations with Wilson fermions at $β=4.6$ using lattices with temporal extension $N_τ=4$. In contrast to the zero temperature case, the existence of an Aoki phase can be confirmed for a small range in $κ$ at $β=4.6$, however, shifted slightly to lower $κ$. Despite fine-tuning $κ$ we could not separate the thermal transition line from the Aoki phase.
The phase diagram for staggered fermions is discussed in the context of the staggered chiral Lagrangian, extending previous work on the subject. When the discretization errors are significant, there may be an Aoki-like phase for staggered fermions, where the remnant SO(4) taste symmetry is broken down to SO(3). We solve explicitly for the mass spectrum in the 3-flavor degenerate mass case and discuss qualitatively the 2+1-flavor case. From numerical results we find that current simulations are outside the staggered Aoki phase. As for near-future simulations with more improved versions of the s…
A new method to determine the phase diagram of certain lattice fermionic field theories in the weakly coupled regime is presented. This method involves a new type of weak coupling expansion which is multiplicative rather than additive in nature and allows perturbative calculation of partition function zeroes. Application of the method to the single flavour Gross-Neveu model gives a phase diagram consistent with the parity symmetry breaking scenario of Aoki and provides new quantitative information on the width of the Aoki phase in the weakly coupled sector.
In order to elucidate the vacuum structure of the Aoki phase, we carried out a numerical investigation of QCD with two flavours of Wilson fermions, within the p.d.f. framework and in the absence of external sources. The simulations performed at V = 44 suggest a rich vacuum structure, where the observable $i\barψγ_5ψ$ is allowed to take non-zero values of the same order of magnitude than the order parameter of the Aoki phase $i\barψγ_5τ_3ψ$. However, the simulation at higher volumes V = 6^4 suffers from large statistical errors.
The vacuum structure of QCD with two degenerated flavours of Wilson fermions is discussed by means of the p.d.f. (probability distribution function) formalism. Under certain assumptions, either new phases related to Aoki's appear, characterized by a non-vanishing expectation value of the condensate $i\barψ_uγ_5ψ_u + i\barψ_dγ_5ψ_d$, enriching the standard picture of the QCD vacuum structure with Wilson fermions; or the eigenvalues of the Dirac-Wilson operator must comply with a non-trivial, infinite set of sum rules, enforcing the currently accepted structure of the Aoki vacuum. The same scena…
We investigate the parity-broken phase (Aoki phase) for staggered-Wilson fermions by using the Gross-Neveu model and the strong-coupling lattice QCD. In the both cases the gap equations indicate the parity-broken phase exists and the pion becomes massless on the phase boundaries. We also show we can take the chiral and continuum limit in the Gross-Neveu model by tuning mass and gauge-coupling parameters. This supports the idea that the staggered-Wilson fermions can be applied to the lattice QCD simulation by taking a chiral limit, as with Wilson fermions.
In this paper, we discuss the vacuum structure of QCD with two flavors of Wilson fermions, inside the Aoki phase. We provide numerical evidence, coming from HMC simulations in $4^4$, $6^4$ and $8^4$ lattices, supporting a vacuum structure for this model at strong coupling more complex than the one assumed in the standard wisdom, with new vacua where the expectation value of $i\barψγ_5ψ$ can take non-zero values, and which can not be connected with the Aoki vacua by parity-flavour symmetry transformations.
We report on a numerical reinvestigation of the Aoki phase in lattice QCD with two flavors of Wilson fermions where the parity-flavor symmetry is spontaneously broken. For this purpose an explicitly symmetry-breaking source term $h\barψ i γ_{5} τ^{3}ψ$ was added to the fermion action. The order parameter $<\barψ i γ_{5}τ^{3}ψ>$ was computed with the Hybrid Monte Carlo algorithm at several values of $(β,κ,h)$ on lattices of sizes $4^4$ to $12^4$ and extrapolated to $h=0$. The existence of a parity-flavor breaking phase can be confirmed at $β=4.0$ and 4.3, while we do not find parity-flavor brea…
We study strong-coupling lattice QCD with staggered-Wilson fermions, with an emphasis on the possibility of spontaneous parity breaking. We perform effective potential analysis in the strong-coupling limit. From gap equations we find the pion condensate becomes nonzero in some range of a mass parameter, which indicates the existence of the parity-broken phase. We also find massless pions and PCAC relations around the second-order phase boundary. These results suggest that we can take the chiral limit by tuning a mass parameter in lattice QCD with staggered-Wilson fermions as with the Wilson fe…
We discuss the symmetries of quenched QCD with Wilson fermions, starting from its lagrangian formulation, taking into account the constraints needed for convergence of the ghost-quark functional integral. We construct the corresponding chiral effective lagrangian, including terms linear and quadratic in the lattice spacing. This allows us to study the phase structure of the quenched theory, and compare it to that in the unquenched theory. In particular we study whether there may be an Aoki phase (with parity and flavor spontaneously broken) or a first order transition line (with no symmetry br…
The QCD partition function for the Wilson Dirac operator, $D_W$, at nonzero lattice spacing $a$ can be expressed in terms of a chiral Lagrangian as a systematic expansion in the quark mass, the momentum and $a^2$. Starting from this chiral Lagrangian we obtain an analytical expression for the spectral density of $γ_5 (D_W+m)$ in the microscopic domain. It is shown that the $γ_5$-Hermiticity of the Dirac operator necessarily leads to a coefficient of the $a^2$ term that is consistent with the existence of an Aoki phase. The transition to the Aoki phase is explained, and the interplay of the ind…
We discuss the vacuum structure of QCD with two flavors of Wilson fermions. We derive two possible scenarios: (i) If the spectral density $ρ_U(λ,κ)$ of the overlap hamiltonian in a fixed background gauge field is not symmetric in $λ$, Hermiticity is violated and Hermiticity violation effects could influence numerical determinations of the $η$ meson mass if we are not near enough to the continuum limit, where Hermiticity should be recovered; (ii) otherwise we argue that, under certain assumptions, new phases appear beside the Aoki phase, which can be characterized by a nonvanishing vacuum expec…
This work is concerned with the phase diagram of Wilson fermions in the mass and coupling constant plane for two-flavor (unquenched) QCD. We show that as the continuum limit is approached, one can study the lattice theory using the continuum chiral Lagrangian, supplemented by additional terms proportional to powers of the lattice spacing. We find two possible phase structures at non-zero lattice spacing: (1) There is an Aoki phase of spontaneously broken flavor and parity, with two massless Goldstone-pions, and a width $Δm_0 \sim a^3$; (2) There is no spontaneous symmetry breaking, and all thr…
We investigate the parity-broken phase structure for staggered and naive fermions in the Gross-Neveu model as a toy model of QCD. We consider a generalized staggered Gross-Neveu model including two types of four-point interactions. We use generalized mass terms to split the doublers for both staggered and naive fermions. The phase boundaries derived from the gap equations show that the mass splitting of tastes results in an Aoki phase both in the staggered and naive cases. We also discuss the continuum limit of these models and explore taking the chirally-symmetric limit by fine-tuning a mass …
We discuss the phase diagram of Wilson fermions in the $m_0$--$g^2$ plane for two-flavor QCD. We argue that, as originally suggested by Aoki, there is a phase in which flavor and parity are spontaneously broken. Recent numerical results on the spectrum of the overlap Hamiltonian have been interpreted as evidence against Aoki's conjecture. We show that they are in fact consistent with the presence of a flavor-parity broken ``Aoki phase''. We also show how, as the continuum limit is approached, one can study the lattice theory using the continuum chiral Lagrangian supplemented by additional term…
In this paper, we examine the phase diagram of quenched QCD with two flavors of Wilson fermions, proposing the following microscopic picture. The super-critical regions inside and outside the Aoki phase are characterized by the existence of a density of near-zero modes of the (hermitian) Wilson-Dirac operator, and thus by a non-vanishing pion condensate. Inside the Aoki phase, this density is built up from extended near-zero modes, while outside the Aoki phase, there is a non-vanishing density of exponentially localized near-zero modes, which occur in "exceptional" gauge-field configurations. …
When Anderson localization takes place in a quenched disordered system, a continuous symmetry can be broken spontaneously without accompanying Goldstone bosons. Elaborating on this observation we propose a unified, microscopic physical picture of the phase diagram of both quenched and unquenched QCD with two flavors of Wilson fermions. The phase with Goldstone bosons -- by definition the Aoki phase -- is always identified as the region where the mobility edge of the (hermitian) Wilson operator is zero. We then discuss the implications for domain-wall and overlap fermions. We conclude that both…
At nonzero lattice spacing the QCD partition function with Wilson quarks undergoes either a second order phase transition to the Aoki phase for decreasing quark mass or shows a first order jump when the quark mass changes sign. We discuss these phase transitions in terms of Wilson Dirac spectra and show that the first order scenario can only occur in the presence of dynamical quarks while in the quenched case we can only have a transition to the Aoki phase. The exact microscopic spectral density of the non-Hermitian Wilson Dirac operator with dynamical quarks is discussed as well. We conclude …
I conjecture on the phase structure expected for lattice gauge theory with two flavors of Wilson fermions, concentrating on large values of the hopping parameter. Numerous phases are expected, including the conventional confinement and deconfinement phases, as well as an Aoki phase with spontaneous breaking of flavor and parity and a large hopping phase corresponding to negative quark masses.
The introduction of a chirally twisted mass term has been proposed as an attractive approach to O(a) improvement of Quantum Chromodynamics with Wilson fermions on a lattice. For numerical simulation projects it is important to know the phase structure of the theory in the region of small quark masses. We study this question in the framework of chiral perturbation theory. Generalizing the analysis of Sharpe and Singleton we find extensions of normal and Aoki phase scenarios and a possible new phase with spontaneous breakdown of chiral symmetry to a discrete $Z_2$.
We investigate the two-dimensional lattice Gross-Neveu model, using the domain-wall fermion formulation, as a toy model of lattice QCD. We study features of the phase diagram related to the mechanism of chiral symmetry restoration, and find that the parity-broken phase (Aoki phase) exists for finite extent in the extra dimension ($N_s$). We also find that O(a) scaling violation terms vanishes in the limit of $N_s\to\infty$.
We present results of an ongoing study of two flavour QCD with Wilson fermions at finite temperature. We have used tree level Symanzik improvement in both the gauge and fermion part of the action. The phase diagram was previously determined on an $8^3 \times 4$ lattice and the existence of Aoki's phase demonstrated. On our current lattice of $12^2 \times 24 \times 4$ we have extended the set of observables and studied chiral and thermal properties at light quark masses.
The nature of the phase transition in the lattice Gross-Neveu model with Wilson fermions is investigated using a new analytical technique. This involves a new type of weak coupling expansion which focuses on the partition function zeroes of the model. Its application to the single flavour Gross-Neveu model yields a phase diagram whose structure is consistent with that predicted from a saddle point approach. The existence of an Aoki phase is confirmed and its width in the weakly coupled region is determined. Parity, rather than chiral symmetry breaking naturally emerges as the driving mechanism…
We perform a mean-field study of the phase diagram of interacting Weyl semimetals with broken parity, that is, with different densities of right- and left-handed quasiparticles. As a simple model system, we consider the Wilson-Dirac Hamiltonian with the chiral chemical potential and on-site repulsive interactions. We find that the chiral chemical potential somewhat shrinks the region of the pion condensation (Aoki phase) in the parameter space of the bare mass and the interaction strength, so that the condensation thresholds are at smaller interaction strengths. The renormalized chiral chemica…
We explore aspects of the phase structure of SU(2) and SU(3) lattice gauge theories at strong coupling with many flavours $N_f$ of Wilson fermions in the fundamental representation, including the relevance to recent searches for a conformal window. The pseudoscalar meson mass, the quark mass and other quantities are observed as functions of the hopping parameter, and we find deviations from the expected analytic dependence, at least for sufficiently large $N_f$. Implications of these effects for the phase structure and for the existence of a (first order) bulk phase and the Aoki phase are disc…
We investigate the phase structure of lattice QCD with dynamical Wilson fermions. Wilson chiral perturbation theory predicts that the Aoki phase and the Sharpe-Singleton scenario manifest themselves in very distinct behavior of the Wilson Dirac eigenvalue spectrum. To test this prediction we perform a direct calculation of the eigenvalues of the non-Hermitian Wilson Dirac operator in dynamical lattice simulations. Moreover, we demonstrate an unexpected quark mass dependence on the shape of the eigenvalue distribution in the positive quark mass side.
We investigate the two dimensional lattice Gross--Neveu model in large flavor number limit using the domain-wall fermion formulation, as a toy model of lattice QCD. We study nonperturbative behaviorn of the restoration of chiral symmetry of the domain-wall fermions as the extent of the extra dimension $(N_s)$ is increased to infinity. We find the the parity broken phase (Aoki phase) for finite $N_s$, and study the phase diagram, which is related to the mechanism of the chiral restoration in $N_s\to\infty$ limit. The continuum limit is taken and $O(a)$ scaling violation of observables vanishes …
We analyze the vacuum structure of a generalized lattice Nambu--Jona-Lasinio model with two flavors of Wilson fermions, such that its continuum action is the most general four-fermion action with 'trivial' color interactions, and having a $SU(2)_V x SU(2)_A$ symmetry in the chiral limit. The phase structure of this model in the space of the two four-fermion couplings shows, in addition to the standard Aoki phases, new phases with $<\barψγ_5ψ> != 0$, in close analogy to similar results recently suggested by some of us for lattice QCD with two degenerate Wilson fermions. This result shows how th…
We present numerical results for the phase diagram of lattice QCD at finite temperature in the formulation with twisted mass Wilson fermions and a tree-level Symanzik-improved gauge action. Our simulations are performed on lattices with temporal extent N_τ=8, and lattice coupling βranging from strong coupling to the scaling domain. Covering a wide range in the space spanned by the lattice coupling βand the hopping and twisted mass parameters κand μ, respectively, we obtain a comprehensive picture of the rich phase structure of the lattice theory. In particular, we verify the existence of an Ao…
In the framework of Wilson Chiral Perturbation Theory, we study the effect induced by a twisted Wilson term, as it appears in Twisted Mass QCD (with 2 degenerate quarks). In particular we consider the vacuum orientation and the pion masses. The computations are done to NLO both in the mass and in the lattice spacing (i.e. to O(a^2)). There are no restrictions on the relative size of lattice artifacts with respect to the physical mass, thus allowing, in principle, to bridge between the physical regime and the unphysical one, where lattice artifacts tend to dominate. The inclusion of O(a^2) latt…
Phase diagram of the single-flavor Gross--Neveu--Wilson model from the Grassmann corner transfer matrix renormalization group
School of Physics, Renmin University of China（中国人民大学物理学院）；Center for Computational Sciences, University of Tsukuba（筑波大学计算科学中心）；Graduate School of Science, The University of Tokyo（东京大学理学研究科）；Institute of Theoretical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院理论物理研究所）；Key Laboratory of Quantum State Construction and Manipulation of MoE, Renmin University of China（教育部量子态构建与操控重点实验室（中国人民大学））
The Hypercube operator determines a variant of the approximate, truncated perfect fermion action. In this pilot study we are going to report on first experiences in dynamical QCD simulations with the Hypercube fermions. We apply this formulation in an investigation of the finite temperature transition for two flavours. On lattices of size $8^3\times 4$ we explore the phase diagram. Physical scales are estimated from pseudoscalar and vector meson masses obtained on $8^3\times 16$ lattices. We observe the presence of a metastability region but do not find evidence for an Aoki phase. The Hypercub…
We use the effective chiral Lagrangian to analyze the phase diagram of two-flavor twisted mass lattice QCD as a function of the normal and twisted masses, generalizing previous work for the untwisted theory. We first determine the chiral Lagrangian including discretization effects up to next-to-leading order (NLO) in a combined expansion in which m_π^2/(4πf_π)^2 ~ a Λ(a being the lattice spacing, and Λ= Λ_{QCD}). We then focus on the region where m_π^2/(4πf_π)^2 ~ (a Λ)^2, in which case competition between leading and NLO terms can lead to phase transitions. As for untwisted Wilson fermions, w…
The phase structure of 2-dimensional topological insulators under a sufficiently strong electron-electron interaction is investigated. The effective theory is constructed by extending the idea of the Kane-Mele model on the graphenelike honeycomb lattice, in terms of U(1) lattice gauge theory (quantum electrodynamics, QED). We analyze the phase structure by the techniques of strong coupling expansion of lattice gauge theory. As a result, we find that the topological phase structure of the system is modified by the electron-electron interaction. There evolves a new phase with the antiferromagnet…
The effect of the strong electron correlation on the topological phase structure of 2-dimensional (2D) and 3D topological insulators is investigated, in terms of lattice gauge theory. The effective model for noninteracting system is constructed similarly to the lattice fermions with the Wilson term, corresponding to the spin-orbit coupling. Introducing the electron-electron interaction as the coupling to the gauge field, we analyze the behavior of emergent orders by the strong coupling expansion methods. We show that there appears a new phase with the in-plane antiferromagnetic order in the 2D…
Detailed information of the low-energy interaction between the charmonia (ηc and J/ψ) and the nucleon is indispensable for exploring the formation of charmonium bound to nuclei. In order to investigate the charmonium-nucleon interactions at low energies, we adopt two essentially different approaches in lattice QCD simulations. The charmonium-nucleon potential can be calculated from the equal-time Bethe-Salpeter amplitude through the effective Schrödinger equation. This novel method is based on the same idea originally applied for the nucleon force by Aoki- Hatsuda-Ishii. Another approach is to…
