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Martin Lüscher

Publications and source records attributed to Martin Lüscher.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
arXiv2021

On the chiral anomaly and the Yang-Mills gradient flow

There are currently two singularity-free universal expressions for the topological susceptibility in QCD, one based on the Yang-Mills gradient flow and the other on density-chain correlation functions. While the latter link the susceptibility to the anomalous chiral Ward identities, the gradient flow permits the emergence of the topological sectors in lattice QCD to be understood. Here the two expressions are shown to coincide in the continuum theory, for any number of quark flavours in the range where the theory is asymptotically free.

hep-lat↗
arXiv2021

Renormalization of the topological charge density in QCD with dimensional regularization

To all orders of perturbation theory, the renormalization of the topological charge density in dimensionally regularized QCD is shown to require no more than an additive renormalization proportional to the divergence of the flavour-singlet axial current. The proof is based on the standard BRS analysis of the QCD vertex functional in the background gauge and exploits the special algebraic properties of the charge density through the Stora--Zumino chain of descent equations.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2020

Master-field simulations of O(a)-improved lattice QCD: Algorithms, stability and exactness

In master-field simulations of lattice QCD, the expectation values of interest are obtained from a single or at most a few representative gauge-field configurations on very large lattices. If the light quarks are included, the generation of these fields using standard techniques is however challenging in view of various algorithmic instabilities and precision issues. Ways to overcome these problems are described here for the case of the O(a)-improved Wilson formulation of lattice QCD and the viability of the proposed measures is then checked in extensive simulations of the theory with 2+1 flavours of quarks.

hep-lat↗
arXiv2018

Topological susceptibility at $T>T_{\rm c}$ from master-field simulations of the SU(3) gauge theory

The topological susceptibility is computed in the SU(3) gauge theory at temperatures $T$ above the critical temperature $T_{\rm c}$ using master-field simulations of very large lattices, where the infamous topology-freezing issue is effectively bypassed. Up to $T=2.0\,T_{\rm c}$ no unusually large lattice effects are observed and the results obtained in the continuum limit confirm the expected rapid decay of the susceptibility with increasing temperature. As a byproduct, the reference gradient-flow time $t_0$ is determined in the range of lattice spacings from $0.023$ to $0.1\,{\rm fm}$ with a precision of 2 per mille.

hep-lat↗
arXiv2017

Stochastic locality and master-field simulations of very large lattices

In lattice QCD and other field theories with a mass gap, the field variables in distant regions of a physically large lattice are only weakly correlated. Accurate stochastic estimates of the expectation values of local observables may therefore be obtained from a single representative field. Such master-field simulations potentially allow very large lattices to be simulated, but require various conceptual and technical issues to be addressed. In this talk, an introduction to the subject is provided and some encouraging results of master-field simulations of the SU(3) gauge theory are reported.

hep-lat↗
arXiv2017

SMD-based numerical stochastic perturbation theory

The viability of a variant of numerical stochastic perturbation theory, where the Langevin equation is replaced by the SMD algorithm, is examined. In particular, the convergence of the process to a unique stationary state is rigorously established and the use of higher-order symplectic integration schemes is shown to be highly profitable in this context. For illustration, the gradient-flow coupling in finite volume with Schrödinger functional boundary conditions is computed to two-loop (i.e. NNL) order in the SU(3) gauge theory. The scaling behaviour of the algorithm turns out to be rather favourable in this case, which allows the computations to be driven close to the continuum limit.

hep-lat↗
arXiv2016

The gradient flow coupling from numerical stochastic perturbation theory

Perturbative calculations of gradient flow observables are technically challenging. Current results are limited to a few quantities and, in general, to low perturbative orders. Numerical stochastic perturbation theory is a potentially powerful tool that may be applied in this context. Precise results using these techniques, however, require control over both statistical and systematic uncertainties. In this contribution, we discuss some recent algorithmic developments that lead to a substantial reduction of the cost of the computations. The matching of the ${\overline{\rm MS}}$ coupling with the gradient flow coupling in a finite box with Schrödinger functional boundary conditions is considered for illustration.

hep-lat↗
arXiv2014

Instantaneous stochastic perturbation theory

A form of stochastic perturbation theory is described, where the representative stochastic fields are generated instantaneously rather than through a Markov process. The correctness of the procedure is established to all orders of the expansion and for a wide class of field theories that includes all common formulations of lattice QCD.

hep-lat↗
arXiv2014

Step scaling and the Yang-Mills gradient flow

The use of the Yang-Mills gradient flow in step-scaling studies of lattice QCD is expected to lead to results of unprecedented precision. Step scaling is usually based on the Schrödinger functional, where time ranges over an interval [0,T] and all fields satisfy Dirichlet boundary conditions at time 0 and T. In these calculations, potentially important sources of systematic errors are boundary lattice effects and the infamous topology-freezing problem. The latter is here shown to be absent if Neumann instead of Dirichlet boundary conditions are imposed on the gauge field at time 0. Moreover, the expectation values of gauge-invariant local fields at positive flow time (and of other well localized observables) that reside in the center of the space-time volume are found to be largely insensitive to the boundary lattice effects.

hep-lat↗
arXiv2014

Topology, the Wilson flow and the HMC algorithm

An old and apparently persistent problem in numerical lattice QCD is that the simulations tend to get trapped in a sector of fixed topological charge when the lattice spacing is taken to zero. The effect sets in very rapidly and may invalidate the simulation results in certain cases. In this talk, the issue is discussed using the Wilson flow as a tool. The flow has a simple scaling behaviour and allows one to understand how exactly the topological sectors emerge in the continuum limit. Further studies however suggest that the observed slowdown of the simulations at small lattice spacings is only partly caused by the emergence of the sectors.

hep-lat↗
arXiv2014

Properties and uses of the Wilson flow in lattice QCD

Theoretical and numerical studies of the Wilson flow in lattice QCD suggest that the gauge field obtained at flow time t>0 is a smooth renormalized field. The expectation values of local gauge-invariant expressions in this field are thus well-defined physical quantities that probe the theory at length scales on the order of sqrt(t). Moreover, by transforming the QCD functional integral to an integral over the gauge field at a specified flow time, the emergence of the topological (instanton) sectors in the continuum limit becomes transparent and is seen to be caused by a dynamical effect that rapidly separates the sectors when the lattice spacing is reduced from 0.1 fm to smaller values.

hep-lat↗
arXiv2013

Chiral symmetry and the Yang--Mills gradient flow

In the last few years, the Yang--Mills gradient flow was shown to be an attractive tool for non-perturbative studies of non-Abelian gauge theories. Here a simple extension of the flow to the quark fields in QCD is considered. As in the case of the pure-gauge gradient flow, the renormalizability of correlation functions involving local fields at positive flow times can be established using a representation through a local field theory in 4+1 dimensions. Applications of the extended flow in lattice QCD include non-perturbative renormalization and O(a) improvement as well as accurate calculations of the chiral condensate and of the pseudo-scalar decay constant in the chiral limit.

hep-lat↗
arXiv2012

Lattice QCD with open boundary conditions and twisted-mass reweighting

Lattice QCD simulations at small lattice spacings and quark masses close to their physical values are technically challenging. In particular, the simulations can get trapped in the topological charge sectors of field space or may run into instabilities triggered by accidental near-zero modes of the lattice Dirac operator. As already noted in ref. [1], the first problem is bypassed if open boundary conditions are imposed in the time direction, while the second can potentially be overcome through twisted-mass determinant reweighting [2]. In this paper, we show that twisted-mass reweighting works out as expected in QCD with open boundary conditions and 2+1 flavours of O(a) improved Wilson quarks. Further algorithmic improvements are tested as well and a few physical quantities are computed for illustration.

hep-lat↗
arXiv2011

Lattice QCD without topology barriers

As the continuum limit is approached, lattice QCD simulations tend to get trapped in the topological charge sectors of field space and may consequently give biased results in practice. We propose to bypass this problem by imposing open (Neumann) boundary conditions on the gauge field in the time direction. The topological charge can then flow in and out of the lattice, while many properties of the theory (the hadron spectrum, for example) are not affected. Extensive simulations of the SU(3) gauge theory, using the HMC and the closely related SMD algorithm, confirm the absence of topology barriers if these boundary conditions are chosen. Moreover, the calculated autocorrelation times are found to scale approximately like the square of the inverse lattice spacing, thus supporting the conjecture that the HMC algorithm is in the universality class of the Langevin equation.

hep-lat↗
arXiv2011

Non-renormalizability of the HMC algorithm

In lattice field theory, renormalizable simulation algorithms are attractive, because their scaling behaviour as a function of the lattice spacing is predictable. Algorithms implementing the Langevin equation, for example, are known to be renormalizable if the simulated theory is. In this paper we show that the situation is different in the case of the molecular-dynamics evolution on which the HMC algorithm is based. More precisely, studying the phi^4 theory, we find that the hyperbolic character of the molecular-dynamics equations leads to non-local (and thus non-removable) ultraviolet singularities already at one-loop order of perturbation theory.

hep-lat↗
arXiv2011

Perturbative analysis of the gradient flow in non-abelian gauge theories

The gradient flow in non-abelian gauge theories on R^4 is defined by a local diffusion equation that evolves the gauge field as a function of the flow time in a gauge-covariant manner. Similarly to the case of the Langevin equation, the correlation functions of the time-dependent field can be expanded in perturbation theory, the Feynman rules being those of a renormalizable field theory on R^4 x [0,oo). For any matter multiplet and to all loop orders, we show that the correlation functions are finite, i.e. do not require additional renormalization, once the theory in four dimensions is renormalized in the usual way. The flow thus maps the gauge field to a one-parameter family of smooth renormalized fields.

hep-th↗
arXiv2010

Universality of the topological susceptibility in the SU(3) gauge theory

The definition and computation of the topological susceptibility in non-abelian gauge theories is complicated by the presence of non-integrable short-distance singularities. Recently, alternative representations of the susceptibility were discovered, which are singularity-free and do not require renormalization. Such an expression is here studied quantitatively, using the lattice formulation of the SU(3) gauge theory and numerical simulations. The results confirm the expected scaling of the susceptibility with respect to the lattice spacing and they also agree, within errors, with computations of the susceptibility based on the use of a chiral lattice Dirac operator.

hep-lat↗