We investigate the continuum limit scaling of the scalar condensate in the $N_f=2$ Schwinger model on the lattice. We employ maximally twisted mass Wilson fermions and overlap fermions. We compute the scalar condensate by taking the trace of the propagator (direct method) and by utilizing the integrated Ward-Takahashi identity. While the scalar condensate comes out consistent using these two methods for a given kind of lattice fermions, we find --quite surprisingly-- large discrepancies for the scalar condensate between twisted mass and overlap fermions. These discrepancies are only resolved when using the point split current for twisted mass fermions.
The LatKMI collaboration is studying systematically the dynamical properties of N_f = 4,8,12,16 SU(3) gauge theories using lattice simulations with (HISQ) staggered fermions. Exploring the spectrum of many-flavour QCD, and its scaling near the chiral limit, is mandatory in order to establish if one of these models realises the Walking Technicolor scenario. Although lattice technologies to study the mesonic spectrum are well developed, scalar flavour-singlet states still require extra effort to be determined. In addition, gluonic observables usually require large-statistic simulations and powerful noise-reduction techniques. In the following, we present useful spectroscopic methods to investigate scalar glueballs and scalar flavour-singlet mesons, together with the current status of the scalar spectrum in N_f = 12 QCD from the LatKMI collaboration.
The nonabelian global chiral symmetries of the two-dimensional N flavour massless Schwinger model are realised through bosonisation and a vertex operator construction.
We measure glueball masses and the string tension in twelve-flavour QCD, aiming at comparing the emerging gluonic spectrum to the mesonic one. When approaching the critical surface at zero quark mass, the hierarchy of masses in the different sectors of the spectrum gives a new handle to determine the existence of an infrared fixed point. We describe the details of our gluonic measurements and the results obtained on a large number of gauge configurations generated with the HISQ action. In particular, we focus on the scalar glueball and its mixing with a flavour-singlet fermionic state, which is lighter than the pseudoscalar (would-be pion) state. The results are interesting in view of a light composite Higgs boson in walking technicolor theories.
Using a recently introduced tensor network method, we study the density of states of the lattice Schwinger model, a standard testbench for lattice gauge theory numerical techniques, but also the object of recent experimental quantum simulations. We identify regimes of parameters where the spectrum appears to be symmetric and displays the expected continuum properties even for finite lattice spacing and number of sites. However, we find that for moderate system sizes and lattice spacing of $gasim O(1)$, the spectral density can exhibit very different properties with a highly asymmetric form. We also explore how the method can be exploited to extract thermodynamic quantities.
We construct a tensor network representation of the partition function for the massless Schwinger model on a two dimensional lattice using staggered fermions. The tensor network representation allows us to include a topological term. Using a particular implementation of the tensor renormalization group (HOTRG) we calculate the phase diagram of the theory. For a range of values of the coupling to the topological term $theta$ and the gauge coupling $beta$ we compare with results from hybrid Monte Carlo when possible and find good agreement.