Lattice gaugefixing and other optics in lattice gauge theory

Abstract

We present results from four projects. In the first, quark and gluon propagators and effective masses and ΔI = 1/2 Rule operator matching coefficients are computed numerically in gaugefixed lattice QCD. In the second, the same quantities are evaluated analytically in the strong coupling, N → ∞limit. In the third project, the Schwinger model is studied in covariant gauges, where we show that the effective electron mass varies with the gauge parameter and that longitudinal gaugefixing ambiguities affect operator product expansion coefficients (analogous to ΔI = 1/2 Rule matching coefficients) determined by matching gauge variant matrix elements. However, we find that matching coefficients even if shifted by the unphysical modes are χ invariant. In the fourth project, we show that the strong coupling parallelogram lattice Schwinger model as a different thermodynamic limit than the weak coupling continuum limit. As a function of lattice skewness angle these models span the Δ = -1 critical line of 6-vertex models which, in turn, have been identified as c = 1 conformal field theories.