A Simple New Improved Lattice Action
Pierre VAN BAAL · 1997
Introduction Lattice gauge theory 1 has proven to be a viable tool for non-perturbative studies in field theories and non-Abelian gauge theories in particular. Despite the tremendous increase of computer power since the first Monte Carlo calculations 2 , it remains a technical challenge to make the lattice spacing a small and the physical volume large enough. Instead one can use the increased computer power of today to study alternative lattice actions, which are chosen to remove as much as possible the scaling violations introduced by a finite lattice cutoff. The computational overhead in using more complicated lattice actions is usually not more than a few to ten times the cost for the Wilson action. 2 Symanzik improvement The notion of improved actions was introduced more than a decade ago 3;4 . The last few years have seen a surge in applying these ideas in actual simula