Lattice Chiral Fermions Research Articles

Chiral lattice fermions from staggered fields

We describe a proposal for constructing a lattice theory that we argue may be capable of yielding free Weyl fermions in the continuum limit. The model employs reduced staggered fermions and uses site parity dependent Yukawa interactions of Fidkowski-Kitaev type to gap a subset of the lattice fermions without breaking symmetries. The possibility for such symmetric mass generation is tied to the cancellation of certain discrete anomalies arising in the continuum limit. The latter place strong constraints on the number of lattice fermions -- constraints that are satisfied by this model. We present numerical results for the model in two dimensions which support this sc

Inhomogeneous phases in the Gross-Neveu model in 1+1 dimensions at finite number of flavors

We explore the thermodynamics of the 1+1-dimensional Gross-Neveu (GN) model at finite number of fermion flavors $N_f$, finite temperature and finite chemical potential using lattice field theory. In the limit $N_f \rightarrow \infty$ the model has been solved analytically in the continuum. In this limit three phases exist: a massive phase, in which a homogeneous chiral condensate breaks chiral symmetry spontaneously, a massless symmetric phase with vanishing condensate and most interestingly an inhomogeneous phase with a condensate, which oscillates in the spatial direction. In the present work we use chiral lattice fermions (naive fermions and SLAC fermions) to simulate the GN model with 2, 8 and 16 flavors. The results obtained with both discretizations are in agreement. Similarly as for $N_f \rightarrow \infty$ we find three distinct regimes in the phase diagram, characterized by a qualitatively different behavior of the two-point function of the condensate field. For $N_f = 8$ we map out the phase diagram in detail and obtain an inhomogeneous region smaller as in the limit $N_f \rightarrow \infty$, where quantum fluctuations are suppressed. We also comment on the existence or absence of Goldstone bosons related to the breaking of translation invariance in 1+1 dimensions.

Characteristics of chiral anomaly in view of various applications

In view of the recent applications of chiral anomaly to various fields beyond particle physics, we discuss some basic aspects of chiral anomaly which may help deepen our understanding of chiral anomaly in particle physics also. It is first shown that Berry's phase (and its generalization) for the Weyl model $H =v_{F} \vec{\sigma}\cdot \vec{p}(t)$ assumes a monopole form at the exact adiabatic limit but deviates from it off the adiabatic limit and vanishes in the high frequency limit of the Fourier transform of $\vec{p}(t)$ for bounded $|\vec{p}(t)|$. An effective action, which is consistent with the non-adiabatic limit of Berry's phase, combined with the Bjorken-Johnson-Low prescription gives normal equal-time space-time commutators and no chiral anomaly. In contrast, an effective action with a monopole at the origin of the momentum space, which describes Berry's phase in the precise adiabatic limit but fails off the adiabatic limit, gives anomalous space-time commutators and a covariant anomaly to the gauge current. We regard this anomaly as an artifact of the postulated monopole and not a consequence of Berry's phase. As for the recent application of the chiral anomaly to the description of effective Weyl fermions in condensed matter and nuclear physics, which is closely related to the formulation of lattice chiral fermions, we point out that the chiral anomaly for each species doubler separately vanishes for a finite lattice spacing, contrary to the common assumption. Instead a general form of pair creation associated with the spectral flow for the Dirac sea with finite depth takes place. This view is supported by the Ginsparg-Wilson fermion, which defines a single Weyl fermion without doublers on the lattice and gives a well-defined index (anomaly) even for a finite lattice spacing.

Axial Magnetic Effect and Chiral Vortical Effect with free lattice chiral fermions

Following the recent work by Braguta et al., we perform an indirect calculation of the chiral vortical conductivity σV with free lattice overlap fermions by measuring the response of the energy flow to the constant axial magnetic field. We find that the measurements are contaminated by very large finite-volume artifacts. However, the continuum result for finite- temperature contribution to the chiral vortical conductivity σV = T2/12 is still reproduced in the limit of infinite volume at fixed temperature.

Features of a 2d gauge theory with vanishing chiral condensate

The Schwinger model with Nf ≥ 2 flavors is a simple example for a fermionic model with zero chiral condensate Σ (in the chiral limit). We consider numerical data for two light flavors, based on simulations with dynamical chiral lattice fermions. We test properties and predictions that were put forward in the recent literature for models with Σ = 0, which include IR conformal theories. In particular, we probe the decorrelation of low lying Dirac eigenvalues, and we discuss the mass anomalous dimension and its IR extrapolation. Here, we encounter subtleties, which may urge caution with analogous efforts in other models, such as multi-flavor QCD.

Finite temperature study of the axial U(1) symmetry on the lattice with overlap fermion formulation

We examine the axial U(1) symmetry near and above the finite-temperature phase transition in two-flavor QCD using lattice QCD simulations. Although the axial U(1) symmetry is always violated by quantization, i.e., the chiral anomaly, the correlation functions may manifest effective restoration of the symmetry in the high-temperature phase. We explicitly study this possibility by calculating the meson correlators as well as the Dirac operator spectral density near the critical point. Our numerical simulations are performed on a ${16}^{3}\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}8$ lattice with two flavors of dynamical quarks represented by the overlap fermion formalism. Chiral symmetry and its violation due to the axial anomaly is manifestly realized with this formulation, which is a prerequisite for the study of the effective restoration of the axial U(1) symmetry. In order to avoid discontinuity in the gauge configuration space, which occurs for the exactly chiral lattice fermions, the simulation is confined in a fixed topological sector. It induces a finite-volume effect, which is well described by a formula based on the Fourier transform from the $\ensuremath{\theta}$ vacua. We confirm this formula at finite temperature by calculating the topological susceptibility in the quenched theory. Our two-flavor simulations show degeneracy of the meson correlators and a gap in the Dirac operator spectral density, which implies that the axial U(1) symmetry is effectively restored in the chirally symmetric phase.

A numerical study of the 2-flavour Schwinger model with dynamical overlap hypercube fermions

We present numerical results for the 2-flavour Schwinger model with dynamical chiral lattice fermions. We insert an approximately chiral hypercube Dirac operator into the overlap formula to construct the overlap hypercube operator. This is an exact solution to the Ginsparg-Wilson relation, with an excellent level of locality and scaling. Due to its similarity with the hypercubic kernel, a low polynomial in this kernel provides a numerically efficient Hybrid Monte Carlo force. We measure the microscopic Dirac spectrum and discuss the corresponding scale-invariant parameter, which takes a surprising form. This is an interesting case, since Random Matrix Theory is unexplored for this setting, where the chiral condensate {\Sigma} vanishes in the chiral limit. We also measure {\Sigma} and the "pion" mass, in distinct topological sectors. In this context we discuss and probe the topological summation of observables by various methods, as well as the evaluation of the topological susceptibility. The feasibility of this summation is essential for the prospects of dynamical overlap fermions in QCD.

Simulation of quantum chromodynamics on the lattice with exactly chiral lattice fermions

Numerical simulation of the low-energy dynamics of quarks and gluons is now feasible based on the fundamental theory of strong interaction, i.e. quantum chromodynamics (QCD). With QCD formulated on a 4D hypercubic lattice (called lattice QCD or LQCD), one can simulate the QCD vacuum and hadronic excitations on the vacuum using teraflop-scale supercomputers, which have become available in the last decade. A great deal of work has been done on this subject by many groups around the world in this article we summarize the work done by the JLQCD and TWQCD collaborations since 2006. These collaborations employ Neuberger’s overlap fermion formulation, which preserves the exact chiral and flavor symmetries on the lattice, unlike other lattice fermion formulations. Because of this beautiful property, numerical simulation of the formulation can address fundamental questions on the QCD vacuum, such as the microscopic structure of the quark–antiquark condensate in the chirally broken phase of QCD and its relation to SU(3) gauge field topology. Tests of the chiral effective theory, which is based on the assumption that the chiral symmetry is spontaneously broken in the QCD vacuum, can be performed, including the pion-loop effect test. For many other phenomenological applications, we adopt the all-to-all quark propagator technique, which allows us to compute various correlation functions without substantial extra cost. The benefit of this is not only that the statistical signal is improved but that disconnected quark-loop diagrams can be calculated. Using this method combined with the overlap fermion formulation, we study a wide range of physical quantities that are of both theoretical and phenomenological interest.

Symmetries of Ginsparg-Wilson chiral fermions

The group structure of the variant chiral symmetry discovered by Luescher in the Ginsparg-Wilson description of lattice chiral fermions is analyzed. It is shown that the group contains an infinite number of linearly independent symmetry generators, and the Lie algebra is given explicitly. CP is an automorphism of this extended chiral group, and the CP transformation properties of the symmetry generators are found. The group has an infinite-parameter invariant subgroup, and the factor group, whose elements are its cosets, is isomorphic to the continuum chiral symmetry group. Features of the currents associated with these symmetries are discussed, including the fact that some different, noncommuting symmetry generators lead to the same Noether current. These are universal features of lattice chiral fermions based on the Ginsparg-Wilson relation; they occur in the overlap, domain-wall, and perfect-action formulations. In a solvable example, free overlap fermions, these noncanonical elements of lattice chiral symmetry are related to complex energy singularities that violate reflection positivity and impede continuation to Minkowski space.

Energy density for chiral lattice fermions with chemical potential

We study a recently proposed formulation of overlap fermions at finite density. In particular, we compute the energy density as a function of the chemical potential and the temperature. It is shown that overlap fermions with chemical potential approach the correct continuum behavior.

HEAVY AND LIGHT QUARKS WITH LATTICE CHIRAL FERMIONS

The feasibility of using lattice chiral fermions which are free of O(a) errors for both the heavy and light quarks is examined. The fact that the effective quark propagators in these fermions have the same form as that in the continuum with the quark mass being only an additive parameter to a chirally symmetric anti-Hermitian Dirac operator is highlighted. This implies that there is no distinction between the heavy and light quarks and no mass dependent tuning of the action or operators as long as the discretization error O(m2a2) is negligible. Using the overlap fermion, we find that the O(m2a2) (and O(ma2)) errors in the dispersion relations of the pseudoscalar and vector mesons and the renormalization of the axial-vector current and scalar density are small. This suggests that the applicable range of ma may be extended to ~0.56 with only 5% error, which is a factor of ~2.4 larger than the corresponding range of the improved Wilson action. We show that the generalized Gell–Mann–Oakes–Renner relation with unequal masses can be utilized to determine the finite ma corrections in the renormalization of the matrix elements for the heavy-light decay constants and semileptonic decay constants of the B/D meson.

Short distance current correlators: Comparing lattice simulations to the instanton liquid

Point to point correlators of currents are computed in quenched QCD using a chiral lattice fermion action, the overlap action. I compare correlators made of exact quark propagators with correlators restricted to low (less than 500 MeV) eigenvalue eigenmodes of the Dirac operator. In many cases they show a qualitative resemblance (typically at small values of the quark mass and distances larger than 0.4 fm) and they differ qualitatively at larger quark masses or at very short distance. Lattice results are in qualitative agreement (and in the difference of vector and axial vector channels, quantitative agreement) with the expectations of instanton liquid models. The scalar channel shows the effects of a quenched finite volume zero mode artifact, a negative correlator.

Further study of the possible scaling region of lattice chiral fermions

In the possible scaling region for an SU(2) lattice chiral fermion advocated in {\it Nucl. Phys.} B486 (1997) 282, no hard spontaneous symmetry breaking occurs and doublers are gauge-invariantly decoupled via mixing with composite three-fermion-states that are formed by local multifermion interactions. However the strong coupling expansion breaks down due to no ``static limit'' for the low-energy limit ($pa\sim 0$). In both neutral and charged channels, we further analyze relevant truncated Green functions of three-fermion-operators by the strong coupling expansion and analytical continuation of these Green functions in the momentum space. It is shown that in the low-energy limit, these relevant truncated Green functions of three-fermion-states with the ``wrong'' chiralities positively vanish due to the generalized form factors (the wave-function renormalizations) of these composite three-fermion-states vanishing as O((pa)^4) for $pa\sim 0$. This strongly implies that the composite three-fermion-states with ``wrong'' chirality are ``decoupled'' in this limit and the low-energy spectrum is chiral, as a consequence, chiral gauge symmetries can be exactly preserved.

Topical results on lattice chiral fermions in the CFA

We report new results on the lattice regularization of the chiral Schwinger model and the chiral U(1) model in four dimensions in the CFA.

Symmetry and symmetry restoration of lattice chiral fermions in the overlap formalism

Three aspects of the symmetry structure of lattice chiral fermions in the overlap formalism are discussed. By the weak coupling expansion of the overlap Dirac operator, the axial anomaly associated to the chiral transformation proposed by Lüscher is evaluated and is shown to have the correct form of the topological charge density for perturbative backgrounds. Next we discuss the exponential suppression of the self-energy correction of the lightest mode in the domain-wall fermion/truncated overlap. Finally, we consider a supersymmetric extension of the overlap formula in the case of the chiral multiplet and examine the symmetry structure of the action.

Extension of the Nielsen-Ninomiya theorem

The index theorem is employed to extend the no-go theorem for lattice chiral Dirac fermions to translation non-invariant and non-local formulations.

Domain-wall model in an asymptotic-free dynamics

We investigate a possibility that the rough gauge problem, which have appeared to be a main reason for failures of lattice chiral gauge theories, is cured by an asymptotic-free dynamics. Taking the domain-wall model in 2(+1) dimensions with SU(2) gauge group, we carry out the quenched simulation of gauge fields in the extra dimension. By studying fermion spectra in several volumes, we show that the chiral zero modes exist on the wall without having the spontaneous symmetry breaking thanks to the asymptotic-free dynamics. This result suggests that the rough gauge problem is solved in some class of lattice chiral fermions as well as in 4 dimensions if an asymptotic-free dynamics is incorporated.

Renormalizability of a lattice chiral fermion in the overlap formulation

Renormalizability of a lattice chiral fermion is studied at one loop level in the overlap formulation in four dimensions. The fermion chirality is examined including the self-energy corrections due to gauge interactions. Divergent terms breaking the chiral symmetry do not appear and the chiral fermion is renormalized, preserving the correct chiral properties without adding new counter-terms or tuning the parameters involved. The divergent part of the wave function renormalization factor agrees with that of the continuum theory. The overlap formulation of a lattice chiral fermion has passed the important test, the renormalizability, at one loop level.

Manifestly gauge covariant treatment of lattice chiral fermions. II

We propose a formulation of chiral fermions on a lattice, on the basis of a lattice extension of the covariant regularization scheme in continuum field theory. The species doublers do not emerge. The real part of the effective action is just one-half of that of Dirac-Wilson fermion and is always gauge invariant even with a finite lattice spacing. The gauge invariance of the imaginary part, on the other hand, sets a severe constraint that is a lattice analog of the gauge anomaly-free condition. For real gauge representations, the imaginary part identically vanishes and the gauge invariance becomes exact.

Manifestly gauge covariant treatment of lattice chiral fermions

We propose a lattice formulation of the chiral fermion which maximally respects the gauge symmetry and simultaneously is free of the unwanted species doublers. The formulation is based on the lattice fermion propagator and composite operators, rather than on the lattice fermion action. The fermionic determinant is defined as a functional integral of an expectation value of the gauge current operator with respect to the background gauge field: The gauge anomaly is characterized as the nonintegrability. We perform some perturbative tests to confirm the gauge covariance and an absence of the doublers. The formulation can be applied rather straightforwardly to numerical simulations in the quenched approximation.