Domain Wall Fermions Research Articles

A lattice implementation of the η-invariant and effective action for chiral fermions on the lattice

Abstract We consider a lattice implementation of the $\eta$-invariant, using the complex phase of the determinant of the simplified domain-wall fermion, which couples to an interpolating 5D gauge field. We clarify the relation to the effective action for chiral Ginsparg–Wilson fermions. The integrability, which holds true for anomaly-free theories in the classical continuum limit, is not assured on a lattice with finite spacing. A lattice expression for the 5D Chern–Simons term is obtained.

On the gauge-invariant path-integral measure for the overlap Weyl fermions in 16 of SO(10)

AbstractWe consider the lattice formulation of SO(10) chiral gauge theory with left-handed Weyl fermions in the 16-dimensional spinor representation ($\underline{16}$) within the framework of the overlap fermion/Ginsparg–Wilson relation. We define a manifestly gauge-invariant path-integral measure for the left-handed Weyl field using all the components of the Dirac field, but the right-handed part of it is just saturated completely by inserting a suitable product of the SO(10)-invariant ’t Hooft vertices in terms of the right-handed field. The definition of the measure applies to all possible topological sectors of admissible link fields. The measure possesses all required transformation properties under lattice symmetries and the induced effective action is CP invariant. The global U(1) symmetry of the left-handed field is anomalous due to the non-trivial transformation of the measure, while that of the right-handed field is explicitly broken by the ’t Hooft vertices. There remains the issue of smoothness and locality in the gauge-field dependence of the Weyl fermion measure, but the question is well defined and the necessary and sufficient condition for this property is formulated in terms of the correlation functions of the right-handed auxiliary fields. In the weak gauge-coupling limit at least, all the auxiliary fields have short-range correlations and the question can be addressed further by Monte Carlo methods without encountering the sign problem. We also discuss the relations of our formulation to other approaches/proposals to decouple the species doubling/mirror degrees of freedom. These include the Eichten–Preskill model, the mirror-fermion model with overlap fermions, the domain-wall fermion model with the boundary Eichten–Preskill term, 4D topological insulator/superconductor with a gapped boundary phase, and the recent studies on the PMS phase/“mass without symmetry breaking”. We clarify the similarities and differences in the technical details and show that our proposal is a unified and well defined testing ground for that basic question.

New Nf=2 pseudofermion action for Monte Carlo simulations of a lattice field theory with domain-wall fermions

We construct a novel $ N_f = 2 $ pseudofermion action for Monte-Carlo simulation of lattice gauge theory with domain-wall fermions (DWF), of which the effective four-dimensional lattice Dirac operator is equal to the overlap-Dirac operator with the argument of the sign function equal to $ H = c \gamma_5 D_w (1 + d D_w)^{-1} $, where $ c $ and $ d $ are parameters, and $D_w$ is the standard Wilson-Dirac operator plus a negative parameter $-m_0 \; (0 < m_0 < 2)$. This new action is particularly useful for the challenging simulations of lattice gauge theories with large $N_f = 2n $ DWF, on the large lattices, and in the strong-coupling regime.

Nonperturbative determination of β functions for SU(3) gauge theories with 10 and 12 fundamental flavors using domain wall fermions

Nonperturbative lattice field theory simulations provide a systematic framework to investigate properties of conformal systems at strong couplings. These simulations can be performed using different lattice discretizations. Here we present numerical results for the step scaling beta function in SU(3) gauge theories with ten and twelve fundamental flavors. We calculate the renormalized β function in the finite volume gradient flow renormalization scheme. Using Möbius domain wall fermions with Symanzik gauge action, Zeuthen gradient flow, and perturbative tree-level improvement, we implement a fully O(a2) Symanzik improved set-up and demonstrate its advantages. We compare our findings to existing results in the literature. For the ten flavor system we observe excellent agreement with the domain wall step-scaling function calculated by Chiu for the range in gc2 where our data overlap. In the case of the twelve flavor system, our O(a2) Symanzik improved set-up predicts a conformal infrared fixed point around gc2∼5.5 in the c=0.25 scheme, which is presently in tension with staggered fermion results in the literature. We consider possible reasons for the discrepancy.

Absence of chiral symmetry breaking in Thirring models in 1+2 dimensions

The Thirring model is an interacting fermion theory with current-current interaction. The model in $1+2$ dimensions has applications in condensed-matter physics to describe the electronic excitations of Dirac materials. Earlier investigations with Schwinger-Dyson equations, the functional renormalization group and lattice simulations with staggered fermions suggest that a critical number of (reducible) flavors $N^{\mathrm{c}}$ exists, below which chiral symmetry can be broken spontaneously. Values for $N^{\mathrm{c}}$ found in the literature vary between $2$ and $7$. Recent lattice studies with chirally invariant SLAC fermions have indicated that chiral symmetry is unbroken for all integer flavor numbers [Wellegehausen et al., 2017]. An independent simulation based on domain wall fermions seems to favor a critical flavor-number that satisfies $1<N^{\mathrm{c}}<2$ [Hands, 2018]. However, in the latter simulations difficulties in reaching the massless limit in the broken phase (at strong coupling and after the $L_s\to\infty$ limit has been taken) are encountered. To find an accurate value $N^{\mathrm{c}}$ we study the Thirring model (by using an analytic continuation of the parity even theory to arbitrary real $N$) for $N$ between $0.5$ and $1.1$. We investigate the chiral condensate, the spectral density of the Dirac operator, the spectrum of (would-be) Goldstone bosons and the variation of the filling-factor and conclude that the critical flavor number is $N^{\mathrm{c}}=0.80(4)$. Thus we see no chiral symmetry breaking in all Thirring models with $1$ or more flavors of ($4$-component) fermions. Besides the artifact transition to the unphysical lattice artifact phase we find strong evidence for a hitherto unknown phase transition that exists for $N>N^{\mathrm{c}}$ and should answer the question of where to construct a continuum limit.

Lattice QCD investigation of a doubly-bottom b¯b¯ud tetraquark with quantum numbers I(JP)=0(1+)

We use lattice QCD to investigate the spectrum of the $\bar{b} \bar{b} u d$ four-quark system with quantum numbers $I(J^P) = 0(1^+)$. We use five different gauge-link ensembles with $2+1$ flavors of domain-wall fermions, including one at the physical pion mass, and treat the heavy $\bar{b}$ quark within the framework of lattice nonrelativistic QCD. Our work improves upon previous similar computations by considering in addition to local four-quark interpolators also nonlocal two-meson interpolators and by performing a L\"uscher analysis to extrapolate our results to infinite volume. We obtain a binding energy of $(-128 \pm 24 \pm 10) \, \textrm{MeV}$, corresponding to the mass $(10476 \pm 24 \pm 10) \, \textrm{MeV}$, which confirms the existence of a $\bar{b} \bar{b} u d$ tetraquark that is stable with respect to the strong and electromagnetic interactions.

Symmetries of spatial meson correlators in high temperature QCD

Based on a complete set of $J = 0$ and $J=1$ spatial isovector correlation functions calculated with $N_F = 2$ domain wall fermions we identify an intermediate temperature regime of $T \sim 220 - 500$ MeV ($1.2T_c$--$2.8T_c$), where chiral symmetry is restored but the correlators are not yet compatible with a simple free quark behavior. More specifically, in the temperature range $T \sim 220 - 500$ MeV we identify a multiplet structure of spatial correlators that suggests emergent $SU(2)_{CS}$ and $SU(4)$ symmetries, which are not symmetries of the free Dirac action. The symmetry breaking effects in this temperature range are less than 5%. Our results indicate that at these temperatures the chromo-magnetic interaction is suppressed and the elementary degrees of freedom are chirally symmetric quarks bound into color-singlet objects by the chromo-electric component of the gluon field. At temperatures between 500 and 660 MeV the emergent $SU(2)_{CS}$ and $SU(4)$ symmetries disappear and one observes a smooth transition to the regime above $T \sim 1$ GeV where only chiral symmetries survive, which are finally compatible with quasi-free quarks.

The topological objects near the chiral crossover transition in QCD

We study the underlying topology of gauge fields in 2+1 flavor QCD with domain wall fermions on lattices of size 323×8, at and immediately above the chiral crossover transition. Using valence overlap fermions with exact index theorem, we focus on its zero modes for different choices of periodicity phases along the temporal direction. Our studies show that the zero modes are due to fractionally charged topological objects, the instanton-dyons. We further provide qualitative study of the interactions between those and compare with the available semi-classical results, finding remarkably accurate agreement in all cases.

Strong Running Coupling from the Gauge Sector of Domain Wall Lattice QCD with Physical Quark Masses.

We report on the first computation of the strong running coupling at the physical point (physical pion mass) from the ghost-gluon vertex, computed from lattice simulations with three flavors of domain wall fermions. We find α_{MS[over ¯]}(m_{Z}^{2})=0.1172(11), in remarkably good agreement with the world-wide average. Our computational bridge to this value is the Taylor-scheme strong coupling, which has been revealed of great interest by itself because it can be directly related to the quark-gluon interaction kernel in continuum approaches to the QCD bound-state problem.

Critical flavor number in the 2+1D Thirring model

The Thirring model in 2+1 spacetime dimensions, in which $N$ flavors of relativistic fermion interact via a contact interaction between conserved fermion currents, is studied using lattice field theory simulations employing domain wall fermions, which furnish the correct U(2N) global symmetry in the limit that the wall separation $L_s\to\infty$. Attention is focussed on the issue of spontaneous symmetry breakdown via a non-vanishing fermion bilinear condensate $\langle\bar\psi\psi\rangle\not=0$. Results from quenched simulations are presented demonstrating that a non-zero condensate does indeed form over a range of couplings, provided simulation results are first extrapolated to the $L_s\to\infty$ limit. Next, results from simulations with $N=1$ using an RHMC algorithm demonstrate that U(2) symmetry is unbroken at weak coupling but plausibly broken at strong coupling. Correlators of mesons with spin zero are consistent with the Goldstone spectrum expected from U(2)$\to$U(1)$\otimes$U(1). We infer the existence of a symmetry-breaking phase transition at some finite coupling, and combine this with previous simulation results to deduce that the critical number of flavors for the existence of a quantum critical point in the Thirring model satisfies $0<N_c<2$, with strong evidence that in fact $N_c>1$.

O(4) -symmetric position-space renormalization of lattice operators

We extend the position-space renormalization procedure, where renormalization factors are calculated from Green's functions in position space, by introducing a technique to take the average of Green's functions over spheres. In addition to reducing discretization errors, this technique enables the resulting position-space correlators to be evaluated at any physical distance, making them continuous functions similar to the $O(4)$-symmetric position-space Green's functions in the continuum theory but with a residual dependence on a regularization parameter, the lattice spacing $a$. We can then take the continuum limit of these renormalized quantities calculated at the same physical renormalization scale $|x|$ and investigate the resulting $|x|$-dependence to identify the appropriate renormalization window. As a numerical test of the spherical averaging technique, we determine the renormalized light and strange quark masses by renormalizing the scalar current. We see a substantial reduction of discretization effects on the scalar current correlator and an enhancement of the renormalization window. The numerical simulation is carried out with $2+1$-flavor domain-wall fermions at three lattice cutoffs in the range 1.79--3.15~GeV.

Observation of approximate SU(2)CS and SU(2nf) symmetries in high temperature lattice QCD

We study spatial isovector J = 1 meson correlators in nf = 2 QCD with dynamical domain-wall fermions on 323 × 8 lattices at temperatures T = 220–380 MeV. We observe an approximate degeneracy of all considered correlators with increasing temperature. This approximate degeneracy suggests emergent SU(2)CS and SU(2nf) symmetries at high temperatures, that mix left- and right-handed quarks. Since these symmetries are symmetries of the chromo-electric interaction in QCD we conclude that at 2Tc temperature the elementary objects are quarks with a definite chirality connected by the chromo-electric field.

Improved study of the β -function of SU(3) gauge theory with Nf=10 massless domain-wall fermions

I perform an improved study of the $\beta$-function of $ SU(3) $ lattice gauge theory with $N_f=10$ massless optimal domain-wall fermions in the fundamental representation, which serves as a check to what extent the scenario in the previous work [arXiv:1603.08854; Proc. Sci. LATTICE2016 (2017) 228] is valid. In the finite-volume gradient flow scheme with $ c = \sqrt{8t}/L = 0.3 $, the renormalized couplings $g^2 (L,a) $ of four primary lattices ($ L/a = \{ 8, 10, 12, 16 \}$) are tuned (in $ 6/g_0^2 $) to the same $ g_c^2 $ with statistical error less than $0.5 \% $, in contrast to the previous work where $ g^2(L,a) $ were obtained by the cubic-spline interpolation. Then the renormalized couplings $ g^2(sL, a) $ of the scaled lattices ($ sL/a = \{16, 20, 24, 32\} $ with $s=2$) are computed at the same $ 6/g_0^2 $ of the corresponding primary lattices. Using the renormalized couplings of four lattice pairs $ (sL,L)/a = \{ (16,8), (20,10), (24,12), (32,16) \} $, the step-scaling $\beta$-function $ [g^2(sL,a) - g^2(L,a)]/\ln (s^2) $ is computed and extrapolated to the continuum limit $ \beta(s,g_c^2) $, as summarized in Table III. Based on the four data points of $ \beta(s,g_c^2) $ at $ g_c^2 = \{ 6.86(2), \ 6.92(3), \ 7.03(2), \ 7.16(2) \} $, I infer that the theory is infrared near-conformal, or conformal with the fixed-point $ g_*^2 = 7.55(36) $. This corrects the scenario in the previous work with $ g_*^2 \sim 7.0 $, and also suggests that the interpolation method cannot give a reliable determination of the $\beta$-function, especially in the regime close to the infrared fixed-point.

Gluon Quasi-Parton-Distribution Functions from Lattice QCD.

We present the first attempt to access the x dependence of the gluon unpolarized parton-distribution function (PDF), based on lattice simulations using the large-momentum effective theory approach. The lattice calculation is carried out with pion masses of 340 and 678MeV on a (2+1)-flavor domain-wall fermion configuration with lattice spacing a=0.111 fm, for the gluon quasi-PDF matrix element with the nucleon momentum up to 0.93GeV. Taking the normalization from similar matrix elements in the rest frame of the nucleon and pion, our results for these matrix elements are consistent with the Fourier transform of the global fit CT14 and PDF4LHC15 NNLO of the gluon PDF, within statistical uncertainty and the systematic one up to power corrections, perturbative O(α_{s}) matching and the mixing from the quark PDFs.

Chiral observables and topology in hot QCD with two families of quarks

We present results on QCD with four dynamical flavors in the temperature range $150$ MeV $\lesssim T \lesssim 500$ MeV. We have performed lattice simulations with Wilson fermions at maximal twist and measured Polyakov loop, chiral condensate and disconnected susceptibility, on lattices with spacings as fine as 0.065 fm. For most observables spacing effects are below statistical errors, which enables us to identify lattice results with continuum estimates. Our estimate of the pseudocritical temperature compares favorably with continuum results from staggered and domain wall fermions, confirming that a dynamical charm does not contribute in the transition region. From the high temperature behaviour of the disconnected chiral susceptibility we infer the topological susceptibility, which encodes relevant properties of the QCD axion, a plausible Dark Matter candidate. The topological susceptibility thus measured exhibits a power-law decay for $T/T_c \gtrsim 2$, with an exponent close to the one predicted by the Dilute Instanton Gas Approximation (DIGA). Close to $T_c$ the temperature dependent effective exponent seems to approach the DIGA result from above, a behaviour which would support recent analytic calculations based on an Instantons-dyons model. These results constrain the mass of a hypothetic QCD post-inflationary axion, once an assumption concerning the relative contribution of axions to Dark Matter is made.

Lattice computation of the Dirac eigenvalue density in the perturbative regime of QCD

The eigenvalue spectrum $\rho(\lambda)$ of the Dirac operator is numerically calculated in lattice QCD with 2+1 flavors of dynamical domain-wall fermions. In the high-energy regime, the discretization effects become significant. We subtract them at the leading order and then take the continuum limit with lattice data at three lattice spacings. Lattice results for the exponent $\partial\ln\rho/\partial\ln\lambda$ are matched to continuum perturbation theory, which is known up to $O(\alpha_s^4)$, to extract the strong coupling constant $\alpha_s$.

RI/MOM and RI/SMOM renormalization of overlap quark bilinears on domain wall fermion configurations

Renormalization constants (RCs) of overlap quark bilinear operators on 2+1-flavor domain wall fermion configurations are calculated by using the RI/MOM and RI/SMOM schemes. The scale independent RC for the axial vector current is computed by using a Ward identity. Then the RCs for the quark field and the vector, tensor, scalar and pseudoscalar operators are calculated in both the RI/MOM and RI/SMOM schemes. The RCs are converted to the $\overline{\rm MS}$ scheme and we compare the numerical results from using the two intermediate schemes. The lattice size is $48^3\times96$ and the inverse spacing $1/a = 1.730(4) {\rm~GeV}$.

Topological susceptibility of QCD with dynamical Möbius domain-wall fermions

We compute the topological susceptibility $\chi_t$ of lattice QCD with $2+1$ dynamical quark flavors described by the M\"obius domain wall fermion. Violation of chiral symmetry as measured by the residual mass is kept at $\sim$1 MeV or smaller. We measure the fluctuation of the topological charge density in a `slab' sub-volume of the simulated lattice using the method proposed by Bietenholz {\it et al.} The quark mass dependence of $\chi_t$ is consistent with the prediction of chiral perturbation theory, from which the chiral condensate is extracted as $\Sigma^{\overline{\rm MS}} (\mbox{2GeV}) = [274(13)(29)\mbox{MeV}]^3$, where the first error is statistical and the second one is systematic. Combining the results for the pion mass $M_\pi$ and decay constant $F_\pi$, we obtain $\chi_t = 0.229(03)(13)M_\pi^2F_\pi^2$ at the physical point.

Domain wall fermion QCD with the exact one flavor algorithm

Lattice QCD calculations including the effects of one or more non-degenerate sea quark flavors are conventionally performed using the Rational Hybrid Monte Carlo (RHMC) algorithm, which computes the square root of the determinant of $\mathscr{D}^{\dagger} \mathscr{D}$, where $\mathscr{D}$ is the Dirac operator. The special case of two degenerate quark flavors with the same mass is described directly by the determinant of $\mathscr{D}^{\dagger} \mathscr{D}$ --- in particular, no square root is necessary --- enabling a variety of algorithmic developments, which have driven down the cost of simulating the light (up and down) quarks in the isospin-symmetric limit of equal masses. As a result, the relative cost of single quark flavors --- such as the strange or charm --- computed with RHMC has become more expensive. This problem is even more severe in the context of our measurements of the $\Delta I = 1/2$ $K \rightarrow \pi \pi$ matrix elements on lattice ensembles with $G$-parity boundary conditions, since $G$-parity is associated with a doubling of the number of quark flavors described by $\mathscr{D}$, and thus RHMC is needed for the isospin-symmetric light quarks as well. In this paper we report on our implementation of the exact one flavor algorithm (EOFA) introduced by the TWQCD collaboration for simulations including single flavors of domain wall quarks. We have developed a new preconditioner for the EOFA Dirac equation, which both reduces the cost of solving the Dirac equation and allows us to re-use the bulk of our existing high-performance code. Coupling these improvements with careful tuning of our integrator, the time per accepted trajectory in the production of our 2+1 flavor $G$-parity ensembles with physical pion and kaon masses has been decreased by a factor of 4.2.

Λc→N form factors from lattice QCD and phenomenology of Λc→nℓ+νℓ and Λc→pμ+μ− decays

A lattice QCD determination of the $\Lambda_c \to N$ vector, axial vector, and tensor form factors is reported. The calculation was performed with $2+1$ flavors of domain wall fermions at lattice spacings of $a\approx 0.11\:{\rm fm},\:0.085\:{\rm fm}$ and pion masses in the range $230\:{\rm MeV} \lesssim m_\pi \lesssim 350$ MeV. The form factors are extrapolated to the continuum limit and the physical pion mass using modified $z$ expansions. The rates of the charged-current decays $\Lambda_c \to n\, e^+ \nu_e$ and $\Lambda_c \to n\, \mu^+ \nu_\mu$ are predicted to be $\left( 0.405 \pm 0.016_{\,\rm stat} \pm 0.020_{\,\rm syst} \right)|V_{cd}|^2 \:{\rm ps}^{-1}$ and $\left( 0.396 \pm 0.016_{\,\rm stat} \pm 0.020_{\,\rm syst} \right)|V_{cd}|^2 \:{\rm ps}^{-1}$, respectively. The phenomenology of the rare charm decay $\Lambda_c \to p\, \mu^+ \mu^-$ is also studied. The differential branching fraction, the fraction of longitudinally polarized dimuons, and the forward-backward asymmetry are calculated in the Standard Model and in an illustrative new-physics scenario.