N. Cundy — Page 2 | Searcharxiv

arXiv2003

Chiral symmetry breaking and topology for all N

We investigate spontaneous chiral symmetry breaking in SU(N) gauge theories at large N using overlap fermions. The exact zero modes and the low-lying modes of the Dirac operator provide the tools to gain insight into the interplay between chiral symmetry breaking and topology. We find that topology indeed drives chiral symmetry breaking at N=3 as well as at large N. By comparing the results on various volumes and at different lattice spacings we are able to show that our conclusions are not affected by finite volume effects and also hold in the continuum limit. We then address the question whether the topology can be usefully described in terms of instantons.

hep-lat↗

arXiv2002

Instantons and chiral symmetry breaking in SU(N) gauge theories

We address the question of whether the low modes of the Dirac operator are caused by topological objects such as instantons in SU(N) gauge theories. We study the pseudo-scalar density of these modes, finding the size distributions of the instantons, and comparing it with the underlying gauge field. We find that, although the near-zero modes of the Dirac operator depend on topology for all N, their small instanton content decreases as N increases.

hep-lat↗