A detailed comparison is made between the topological structure of quenched QCD as revealed by the recently proposed over-improved stout-link smearing in conjunction with an improved gluonic definition of the topological density on one hand and a similar analysis made possible by the overlap-fermionic topological charge density both with and without variable ultraviolet cutoff $lambda_{cut}$. The matching is twofold, provided by fitting the density-density two-point functions on one hand and by a point-by-point fitting of the topological densities according to the two methods. We point out the similar cluster structure of the topological density for moderate smearing and $200 mathrm{MeV} < lambda_{cut} < 600 mathrm{MeV}$, respectively. We demonstrate the relation of the gluonic topological density for extensive smearing to the location of the overlap zero modes and the lowest overlap non-zero mode as found for the unsmeared configurations.
Overlap fermions preserve a remnant of chiral symmetry on the lattice. They are a powerful tool to investigate the topological structure of the vacuum of Yang-Mills theory and full QCD. Recent results concerning the localization of topological charge and the localization and local chirality of the overlap eigenmodes are reported. The charge distribution is radically different, if a spectral cut-off for the Dirac eigenmodes is applied. The density q(x) is changing from the scale-a charge density (with full lattice resolution) to the ultraviolet filtered charge density. The scale-a density, computed on the Linux cluster of LRZ, has a singular, sign-coherent global structure of co-dimension 1 first described by the Kentucky group. We stress, however, the cluster properties of the UV filtered topological density resembling the instanton picture. The spectral cut-off can be mapped to a bosonic smearing procedure. The UV filtered field strength reveals a high degree of (anti)selfduality at hot spots of the action. The fermionic eigenmodes show a high degree of local chirality. The lowest modes are seen to be localized in low-dimensional space-time regions.
Overlap fermions have an exact chiral symmetry on the lattice and are thus an appropriate tool for investigating the chiral and topological structure of the QCD vacuum. We study various chiral and topological aspects of quenched gauge field configurations. This includes the localization and chiral properties of the eigenmodes, the local structure of the ultraviolet filtered field strength tensor, as well as the structure of topological charge fluctuations. We conclude that the vacuum has a multifractal structure.
We summarize different uses of the eigenmodes of the Neuberger overlap operator for the analysis of the QCD vacuum, here applied to quenched configurations simulated by means of the Luescher-Weisz action. We describe the localization and chiral properties of the lowest modes. The overlap-based topological charge density (with and without UV-filtering) is compared with the results of UV-filtering for the field strength tensor. The latter allows to identify domains of good (anti-)selfduality. All these techniques together lead to a dual picture of the vacuum, unifying the infrared instanton picture with the presence of singular defects co-existent at different scales.
The effect of Stout smearing is investigated in numerical simulations with twisted mass Wilson quarks. The phase transition near zero quark mass is studied on 12^3x24, 16^3x32 and 24^3x48 lattices at lattice spacings a = 0.1 - 0.125 fm.
Overlap fermions implement exact chiral symmetry on the lattice and are thus an appropriate tool for investigating the chiral and topological structure of the QCD vacuum. We study various chiral and topological aspects on Luescher-Weisz-type quenched gauge field configurations using overlap fermions as a probe. Particular emphasis is placed upon the analysis of the spectral density and the localisation properties of the eigenmodes as well as on the local structure of topological charge fluctuations.