We construct positive-definite pseudofermion actions for one fermion flavor in lattice field theory, for Wilson and domain-wall fermions respectively. The positive definiteness of these actions ensures that they can be simulated with the Hybrid Monte Carlo (HMC) method. For lattice QCD with optimal domain-wall quarks, we compare the efficiency of HMC simulations of 2-flavor and (1+1)-flavor, and find that the efficiency ratio is about 3:2.
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.
We present an exact dynamical QCD simulation algorithm for the $O(a)$-improved Wilson fermion with odd number of flavors. Our algorithm is an extension of the non-Hermitian polynomials HMC algorithm proposed by Takaishi and de Forcrand previously. In our algorithm, the systematic errors caused by the polynomial approximation of the inverse of Dirac operator is removed by a noisy-Metropolis test. For one flavor quark it is achieved by taking the square root of the correction matrix explicitly. We test our algorithm for the case of $N_f=1+1$ on a moderately large lattice size ($16^3times48$). The $N_f=2+1$ case is also investigated.
We report our numerical lattice QCD calculations of the isovector nucleon form factors for the vector and axialvector currents: the vector, induced tensor, axialvector, and induced pseudoscalar form factors. The calculation is carried out with the gauge configurations generated with N_f=2+1 dynamical domain wall fermions and Iwasaki gauge actions at beta = 2.13, corresponding to a cutoff 1/a = 1.73 GeV, and a spatial volume of (2.7 fm)^3. The up and down quark masses are varied so the pion mass lies between 0.33 and 0.67 GeV while the strange quark mass is about 12% heavier than the physical one. We calculate the form factors in the range of momentum transfers, 0.2 < q^2 < 0.75 GeV^2. The vector and induced tensor form factors are well described by the conventional dipole forms and result in significant underestimation of the Dirac and Pauli mean-squared radii and the anomalous magnetic moment compared to the respective experimental values. We show that the axialvector form factor is significantly affected by the finite spatial volume of the lattice. In particular in the axial charge, g_A/g_V, the finite volume effect scales with a single dimensionless quantity, m_pi L, the product of the calculated pion mass and the spatial lattice extent. Our results indicate that for this quantity, m_pi L > 6 is required to ensure that finite volume effects are below 1%.
We report lattice-volume independence of low moments of nucleon structure functions from the coarse RIKEN-BNL-Columbia (RBC) and UKQCD joint dynamical (2+1)-flavor domain-wall fermions (DWF) ensembles at the lattice cut off of (a^{-1}sim1.7) GeV. The isovector quark momentum fraction, (< x >_{u-d}), and helicity fraction, (< x >_{Delta u - Delta d}), both fully non-perturbatively renormalized are studied on two spatial volumes of ((sim {rm 2.7 fm})^3) and ((sim {rm 1.8 fm})^3). Their naturally renormalized ratio, (< x >_{u-d}/< x >_{Delta u - Delta d}), is not affected by any finite-size effect. It does not depend strongly on light quark mass and does agree well with the experiment. The respective absolute values, fully non-perturbatively renormalized, do not show any finite-size effect either. They show trending toward the respective experimental values at the lightest up- and down-quark mass. This trending down to the experimental values appears to be a real physical effect driven by lighter quarks. The observations are in contrast to the huge finite-size effect seen in the axial-current form factors.
We report on the nucleon decay matrix elements with domain-wall fermions in quenched approximation. Results from direct and indirect method are compared with a focus on the process of a proton decaying to a pion and a lepton. We discuss the renormalization necessary for the matching to the continuum theory. Preliminary results for the renormalized chiral lagrangian parameters are presented.